Covid-19 boosters could keep thousands of children out of hospitals, but uptake remains low

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CNN
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Higher covid-19 vaccination rates among US children could prevent thousands of pediatric hospitalizations and millions of lost school days, according to a analysis released Tuesday by the Commonwealth Fund and the Yale School of Public Health.

If school-age children were vaccinated with the updated Covid-19 booster at the same rate as they were vaccinated against flu last season (between 50% and 60% coverage), at least 38,000 hospitalizations could be avoided pediatric, including about 9,000 hospitalizations. intensive care units, until March. And if Covid-19 booster coverage reaches 80% among school-age children by the end of the year, more than 50,000 hospitalizations could be avoided.

Preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations could help ease the strain on children’s hospitals, which have been especially crowded in recent weeks as respiratory virus season, including flu, RSV and Covid-19 , sweeps the country earlier than usual. Fewer than 1 in 4 children’s hospital beds are available nationwide, including fewer than 10% of beds in seven states, according to data from the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

“The overwhelmed healthcare system means that some families may not be able to get the care their child needs for a medical emergency,” said Dr. Moira Szilagyi, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, wrote in a CNN Opinion piece, calling the situation a “crisis.”

Covid-19 transmission is significantly lower now than it was at the beginning of the year; Less than 5% of the US population lives in a county considered to have a high level of COVID-19 community, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But more than 2,400 children were admitted to the hospital with covid-19 last week, nearly three times as many as the previous week, according to the CDC. data shows

The new analysis also found that higher vaccination rates could help keep children in school, a benefit that other research suggests could have important effects on mental health and academic achievement.

Assuming an isolation period of five days for children with mild illness and 10 days for those who are hospitalized or severely ill, matching the COVID-19 booster dose with flu shots for children could prevent more than 22 million days of school absenteeism.

But the scenarios presented in the new analysis are quite unrealistic. So far, less than 5% of school-age children have their up-to-date booster shot, according to the CDC data.

A record number of updated Covid-19 boosters were administered in the first week of November, and US officials say they plan to push this week for people to receive Covid-19 boosters to offer maximum protection around Thanksgiving. Thank you, but overall acceptance remains low. To reach 50% coverage by the end of the year, the vaccination rate would have to be at least 10 times faster than in November.

And Covid-19 vaccination rates among children have long lagged behind those of adults. Only 32% of children aged 5-11 and 61% of those aged 12-17 have completed their initial covid-19 vaccination series, compared to 78% of adults.

“Accelerated vaccination campaigns that achieve high coverage at all ages have the potential to prevent a possible imminent surge in COVID-19, protecting children both directly and indirectly and providing them with additional stability in terms of school attendance and other social commitments”, indicates the study. the authors wrote. “The cost of inaction could be high: millions more days of school absenteeism and thousands of preventable hospitalizations for children.”

For this analysis, the researchers did not take into account the possibility of an immune-evading novel coronavirus variant, but they did take into account both naturally acquired and vaccine-induced immunity that would wane over time.