Bivalent Vax Protected Kids From Symptomatic COVID

— “Every various manner in which we sliced this, we discovered that the vaccine worked”

by
Emily HuttoAssociate Video Producer
February 6, 2024

Throughout the 2022-2023 breathing season, the bivalent COVID vaccines had an efficiency of 54% versus infection and 49% versus symptomatic COVID in kids and teenagers ages 5 to 17 years, a brand-new research study in JAMA revealed.

In this interview, Melissa Briggs Hagen, MD, MPH, of the CDC’s Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division, goes over the information.

The following is a records of her remarks:

This research study was created to examine how well the bivalent vaccine safeguarded kids from infection– both basic SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptomatic health problem– throughout the last breathing infection season.

For this research study, the groups that we were actually examining were those who had actually gotten the bivalent vaccine and those who had not. Those who had actually not gotten the bivalent vaccine might have gotten the monovalent vaccine or might have had previous infection, so they weren’t totally non-immune, however they had not gotten the bivalent. Those were our 2 comparator groups.

This research study did reveal that amongst the practically 3,000 kids from the 6 various websites that were registered and kept an eye on that the bivalent vaccine safeguarded versus all infections with an efficiency of 54%, and was 49% efficient at securing them from COVID-19 health problem or symptomatic infection.

We did, in the research study, stratify by age and take a look at those who were 5 to 11 versus 12 to 17. We likewise stratified by history of previous infection, as that’s been a huge concern– how well the vaccine works if you’ve been formerly contaminated. We individually looked at those who had actually been contaminated in the past and those who had not. We likewise looked within a particular subset of individuals who were from the biggest website, due to the fact that we desired to make sure there wasn’t any kind of predisposition based on our various websites and the various vaccine uptake.

Every various manner in which we sliced this, we discovered that the vaccine worked in avoiding infection, both general infection and symptomatic infection.

We believe it’s crucial since the bivalent vaccine did offer security versus infection throughout a period in which Omicron and some really, really transmissible sublineages of Omicron were distributing. This wasn’t entirely understood.

We’ve had a great deal of research studies that have actually revealed that COVID-19 vaccination in basic works to avoid extreme illness. That is the primary objective of the vaccination program, therefore a number of the research studies that come out are actually taking a look at medically-attended results such as immediate care gos to, emergency situation department check outs, hospitalization. Those are both much easier to study– due to the fact that you can do a case-control style or a test-negative style– and they’re likewise more what’s driving the vaccine policy. A number of the research studies that have actually come out have actually been concentrated on those results.

There have actually been some research studies on the results that we took a look at– these milder results like infection and like symptomatic health problem– however not particularly in school-aged kids and throughout this timeframe of the bivalent vaccine being offered and all of these brand-new sublineages of Omicron distributing. We believed it was essential to evaluate it.

We likewise believed it was necessary that we do it with this really extensive research study style. We understood that we didn’t miss out on any infections. We were swabbing weekly, there was really high compliance– over 90% throughout the research study duration– and after that we likewise had antibody tests at the start of the research study to understand if they were prior-infected. We truly had a lot of information in this research study to comprehend well how the vaccine was working.

This was not a research study that looked particularly at the most recent vaccine. The 2023/2024 monovalent vaccine that’s now been launched and is readily available for individuals to get today is being studied at CDC. CDC simply recently put out an MMWR [[Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report]recently that discovered extremely comparable findings to what we discovered. It was looking at symptomatic disease and screening favorable for COVID-19, and it was 54% security versus infection in that research study. We believe that’s really motivating that we’re continuing to see the vaccine work even as brand-new versions occur, consisting of the brand-new JN.1 version.

Still, uptake of the vaccine is rather low. Possibly households, moms and dads, service providers seem like they’re not at danger for serious illness or they’re not at threat for the results that the vaccine is truly targeting.

We understand that COVID-19 infection is extremely typical in kids, that it does result in a lot of missed out on school and a lot of moms and dads having to take off work, and possibly transmission to more vulnerable, older grownups. The truth that the vaccine does work versus this milder result, I believe, is pertinent. I believe it’s an essential tool for households and for service providers and for policymakers to be familiar with.

The last thing I would state is that the existing COVID-19 season is still rather high-circulation in great deals of parts of the nation and the present vaccine is still readily available. I would motivate you to check out the research study, to examine it on your own. We, once again, think that it’s truly properly designed, and it’s info that you can base on when speaking to your clients or notifying other members of the general public what the advantages are of this vaccine.