Let Parents Know: Risk for MIS-C in Adolescents May Diminish with Vaccination

One of the few serious threats to otherwise healthy children with COVID-19 is the risk for potentially deadly multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). While the numbers pale in comparison to the overall death toll from SARS-CoV-2, thousands of children have been hospitalized due to MIS-C, with scores dying in the United States alone. The hope that vaccination might offer some degree of protection is now coming to fruition, at least in adolescents. According to a Research Letter just published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, even one dose of COVID vaccine appears to diminish risk for MIS-C in children between 12 and 18 years of age. The researchers performed three sensitivity analyses to offset the fact that there’s a delay between vaccination and immune response and between infection and MIS-C onset; subjects were considered vaccinated at least 14 days, at least 28 days, and at least 42 after receiving their first dose of vaccine. (“The delay of more than 42 days covers the 28 days between the first and second injection and 2 additional weeks to achieve full immunity,” they explained.) The hazard ratio for MIS-C was 0.09 (95% confidence interval, 004 – 0.21 ; p <.001) after receiving one dose of vaccine compared with adolescents who were not vaccinated at all, suggesting that “COVID-19 mRNA vaccination was associated with a lower incidence of MIS-C in adolescents.” Share this new information with parents who are on the fence about getting their children vaccinated.