Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in UK school-aged children and young people decreases infection rates and reduces COVID-19 symptoms
By
Erika Molteni,
Liane S Canas,
Kerstin Klaser,
Jie Deng,
Sunil S Bhopal,
Robert C Hughes,
Liyuan Chen,
Benjamin Murray,
Eric Kerfoot,
Michela Antonelli,
Carole Helene Sudre,
Joan Capdevila Pujol,
Lorenzo Polidori,
Anna May,
Alexander Hammers,
Jonathan Wolf,
Timothy Spector,
Claire J Steves,
Sebastien Ourselin,
Michael Absoud,
Marc Modat,
Emma L Duncan
Posted 13 Mar 2022
medRxiv DOI: 10.1101/2022.03.13.22272176
Background We aim to explore the effectiveness of one-dose BNT162b2 vaccination upon SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in children and young people (CYP) during Delta and Omicron variant predominance in the UK, and study its effect on COVID-19 presentation and post-vaccination symptoms. Methods In this prospective longitudinal cohort study, we analysed data from 115,775 CYP aged 12-17 years, proxy-reported through the Covid Symptom Study (CSS) smartphone application. We calculated post-vaccination infection risk after one dose of BNT162b2. We described the illness profile of CYP with post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared to unvaccinated CYP. Findings Between August 5, 2021 and February 14, 2022, 25,971 UK CYP aged 12-17 years received one dose of BNT162b2 vaccine. Vaccination reduced infection (reporting) risk (-80.4% and -53.7% at 14-30 days with Delta and Omicron variants respectively, and -61.5% and -63.7% after 61-90 days). The probability of remaining infection-free diverged after vaccination, and was more robust with prior infection. Vaccinated CYP who contracted SARS-CoV-2 during the Delta period had milder disease than unvaccinated CYP; however, during the Omicron period this was only evident in children aged 12-15 years, and overall disease profile was similar in both vaccinated and unvaccinated CYP. Post-vaccination local side-effects were common, systemic side-effects were uncommon, and both resolved quickly. Interpretation One dose of BNT162b2 vaccine reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for at least 90 days in CYP aged 12-17 years. Vaccine protection was modulated by SARS-CoV-2 variant type (lower for Omicron than Delta variant), and was enhanced by pre-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection. Severity of COVID-19 presentation after vaccination is generally milder, although unvaccinated CYP also have an uncomplicated course. Overall, vaccination was well-tolerated.
Download data
- Downloaded 1,039 times
- Download rankings, all-time:
- Site-wide: 32,293
- In epidemiology: None
- Year to date:
- Site-wide: 1,659
- Since beginning of last month:
- Site-wide: 23,208
Altmetric data
Downloads over time
Distribution of downloads per paper, site-wide
PanLingua
News
- 27 Nov 2020: The website and API now include results pulled from medRxiv as well as bioRxiv.
- 18 Dec 2019: We're pleased to announce PanLingua, a new tool that enables you to search for machine-translated bioRxiv preprints using more than 100 different languages.
- 21 May 2019: PLOS Biology has published a community page about Rxivist.org and its design.
- 10 May 2019: The paper analyzing the Rxivist dataset has been published at eLife.
- 1 Mar 2019: We now have summary statistics about bioRxiv downloads and submissions.
- 8 Feb 2019: Data from Altmetric is now available on the Rxivist details page for every preprint. Look for the "donut" under the download metrics.
- 30 Jan 2019: preLights has featured the Rxivist preprint and written about our findings.
- 22 Jan 2019: Nature just published an article about Rxivist and our data.
- 13 Jan 2019: The Rxivist preprint is live!