For children and adolescents aged 12-18, two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (BNT162b2) are highly effective for preventing COVID-19 hospitalization, according to research published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Investigators who assessed the effectiveness of two doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 hospitalization reported 464 hospitalized persons aged 12-18 (179 case-patients and 285 controls), of whom 72% had at least one underlying condition, including obesity, and 68% had attended in-person school. During the period when B.1.617.2 (Delta) was the predominant variant, the effectiveness of two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 93% against COVID-19 hospitalization. “These data suggest that increasing vaccination coverage among this group could reduce the incidence of severe COVID-19 in the United States,” the authors wrote.
