Initial protection against Omicron in children and adolescents by BNT162b2
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Abstract
BACKGROUND
The BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) 2-dose vaccine for children and the BNT162b2 3rd dose for adolescents were approved shortly before the Omicron outbreak in Israel. The effects of these vaccines on the rates of Omicron confirmed infection are not yet clear.
METHODS
We extracted data for the Omicron-dominated (sub-lineage BA.1) period December 26, 2021 through January 8, 2022. We compared rates of confirmed Covid-19 infection between children 5-10 years old 14-35 days after receiving the 2nd dose to an internal control group of children 3-7 days after receiving the 1st dose (when the vaccine is not yet effective). Similarly, we compared confirmed infection rates in adolescents 12-15 years old 14-60 days after receiving a booster dose to an internal control group of adolescents 3-7 days after receiving the booster dose. We used Poisson regression, adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic status, calendar week, and exposure.
RESULTS
In the 5-10 age group, the estimated rate of confirmed infection was 2.3 fold (95% CI, 2.0 to 2.5) lower in the 2nd dose group than in the internal control group. In adolescents, the third dose decreased confirmed infection rates by 3.3-fold (95% CI, 2.8 to 4.0).
CONCLUSIONS
A recent 2-dose BNT162b2 vaccination in children and a recent booster dose in adolescents reduced the rate of confirmed infection compared to the respective internal control groups. Future studies are needed to assess the duration of this protection and protection against other outcomes such as PIMS and long-COVID.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2022.05.22.22275323: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter:…
SciScore for 10.1101/2022.05.22.22275323: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a protocol registration statement.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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