Covid-19 vaccination substantially lowered risks for children last season, CDC report says

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN

(CNN) — Children who were vaccinated against Covid-19 last season had a “substantially lower risk” of emergency department and urgent care visits related to the virus, according to a report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday.

The vaccines were about 76% effective in preventing these outcomes among healthy children ages 9 months to 4 years and about 56% effective among children ages 5 to 17 when compared to those who did not receive an updated vaccine for the 2024-2025 respiratory virus season, the CDC report said.

The federal analysis was based on data from about 98,000 children who had a health care encounter between late August 2024 and early September 2025 at one of about 250 different emergency departments and urgent care centers that participate in a research collaboration that the CDC is involved in. Outcomes for children who received the updated vaccine for 2024-2025 respiratory virus were compared with those who had not received the latest shot, but may have had earlier series.

“In a population with some persons having preexisting levels of protection from previous vaccination, previous infection, or both, 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccination provided children with additional protection against COVID-19–associated (emergency department and urgent care) encounters compared with no 2024–2025 vaccination,” the researchers authors wrote.

During the 2024-2025 respiratory virus season, Covid-19 vaccination was recommended for all people ages 6 months and older. Those recommendations were adopted by the CDC following votes from Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, a panel of independent vaccine advisors.

But ACIP was overhauled this year, with all previous members removed and replaced by a set of individuals handpicked by US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Now, current CDC recommendations for the Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months to 17 years should be “based on shared clinical decision-making,” the agency says.

In a break with the latest CDC recommendations, the American Academy of Pediatrics continues to explicitly recommend Covid-19 shots for young children.

“The impact that shifting from universal to shared clinical decision-making (otherwise known as individual-based decision-making) will have on COVID-19 vaccination coverage or effectiveness in children is unclear, underscoring the importance of continued monitoring of COVID-19 (vaccine effectiveness,” CDC researchers wrote in the new report.

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