Study of 1 million US kids shows vaccines tied to lower risk of long COVID

A young child receives a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccine clinic in Baltimore County, Maryland. Public domain photo from Baltimore County Government / Flickr.

Study of 1 million US kids shows vaccines tied to lower risk of long COVID

Published March 8, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: March 8, 2024
By Stephanie Soucheray

A study of 1,037,936 US children seen in 17 healthcare systems across the country shows that COVID-19 vaccines are moderately protective against long COVID: 35% to 45%, with higher rates in adolescents. The study was published today in Pediatrics.

The researchers estimated vaccine effectiveness (VE) against long COVID in children aged 5 to 17 years. Though severe COVID-19 cases are less common in children than in adults, persistent symptoms in children do occur.

“It is difficult to establish how much this results from differential reporting of symptoms at different ages, greater difficulty distinguishing long COVID from other childhood illnesses or effects of the pandemic (eg, disruption of seasonal viral patterns, or of school progress,” the authors wrote.

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vaccines

Fall COVID-19 vaccine cut illness risk by half overall

Published February 22, 2024

Published by: Globe and Mail
Published on: February 22, 2024
By Kelly Grant

The fall COVID-19 vaccine cut the risk of COVID-19 illness by about half overall, and by 67 per cent for those with a previous infection, according to new research from the Canadian network that has long tracked the performance of the annual flu shot.

This is the first time the Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network, which is comprised of hundreds of primary care providers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, produced mid-season estimates of the effectiveness of immunization against COVID-19.

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vaccines

Canadian data show moderate to good vaccine efficacy against COVID, flu

Published February 19, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: February 19, 2024
By Mary Van Beusekom

The Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) data reveal mid-season vaccine effectiveness (VE) against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.5 variant of 47% against medically attended outpatient COVID-19 and 67% among previously infected people.

The same test-negative case-control study reports that the flu vaccine is 63% effective against medically attended outpatient infection with the influenza A H1N1 strain and 40% against H3N2.

The researchers enrolled patients with new or worsening cough that is characteristic of acute respiratory illness (ARI) who sought care within 7 days of symptom onset from community-based sentinel practitioners in Alberta, British Columbia (BC), Ontario, or Quebec.

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Tag: vaccine effectiveness