The safety profile and efficacy of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2) in children younger than 5 years old
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Reviewed by Dat Tien Nguyen, B.A, ScM.
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Posted on February 24th, 2023
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In 2013, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) was approved for pediatric usage in the United States. After 3 years of implementation, there was a steep decline in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease. Thus, the vaccine was recommended for the elderly population and the surveillance study conducted since 2014 had published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study used the Medicare database, the government-operated health insurance for people older than 65 years old. Data was extracted from over 24 million individuals; half of them were older than 75 years old, and are experiencing either an immunocompromised condition or a chronic disorder. After the vaccine was recommended, 20.5% of the individuals included in the study’s analysis had been vaccinated. Between the study duration of 2014 and 2018, the study concluded that the PCV13 vaccine helped reduce the risk of all-cause pneumonia by 6.7% and prevent more than 35 thousand hospitalizations. The vaccine also prevents 4.7% of nosocomial pneumonia and 5.8% of lobar pneumonia. When the study population was stratified by age groups, the researchers observed that the vaccine effectiveness was significantly higher in younger individuals. As the PCV15 and PCV20 vaccines had recently been approved to be used in the elderly population in 2021, their effectiveness might be better due to a broader coverage.
The study used the Medicare database, the government-operated health insurance for people older than 65 years old. Data was extracted from over 24 million individuals; half of them were older than 75 years old, and are experiencing either an immunocompromised condition or a chronic disorder. After the vaccine was recommended, 20.5% of the individuals included in the study’s analysis had been vaccinated. Between the study duration of 2014 and 2018, the study concluded that the PCV13 vaccine helped reduce the risk of all-cause pneumonia by 6.7% and prevent more than 35 thousand hospitalizations. The vaccine also prevents 4.7% of nosocomial pneumonia and 5.8% of lobar pneumonia. When the study population was stratified by age groups, the researchers observed that the vaccine effectiveness was significantly higher in younger individuals. As the PCV15 and PCV20 vaccines had recently been approved to be used in the elderly population in 2021, their effectiveness might be better due to a broader coverage.