CDC: Pfizer Vax Kept Teens Out of the Hospital for COVID
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) was 93% effective among adolescents at preventing hospitalization, even during the Delta surge, researchers found.
Among 179 patients ages 12-18 with COVID-19, 173 were unvaccinated, including 77 patients admitted to the ICU, 29 patients who were critically ill, and two that died, reported Samantha Olson, MPH, of the CDC, and colleagues, writing in an early edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective among adolescents ages 12-15, showing 100% efficacy against symptomatic disease, which helped spur an amendment to the FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) in May. However, the authors noted that vaccine effectiveness data in real-world settings is “limited,” especially with regards to hospitalization in this population.
The researchers examined data from June 1 to September 30 across 16 states, from after the EUA was amended for vaccine use in adolescents ages 12-15 to when hospitalizations from Delta were highest.
This case-control study defined cases as adolescents hospitalized at one of 19 pediatric hospitals with symptomatic COVID-19-like illness and a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 via RT-PCR. Controls were patients with comparable symptoms, but who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 and patients without COVID-19 who may or may not have received …
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