1+ Million Retrospective Study of Children/Adolescents Reveals Some Benefit of COVID-19 Vax in Preventing Long COVID

A recent large study funded by the National Institutes of Health Agreement as part of the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) program of research run by a group of researchers called the RECOVER Consortium represented by Hanieh Razzaghi, Ph.D., MPH, at Roberts Center for Pediatric Research in Philadelphia was conducted. It was a large, retrospective study involving a cohort of 1 037 936 children with a COVID-19 vaccination rate of 67%. The investigators tapped into data from 17 health systems in the RECOVER PCORnet electronic health record program for visits after vaccine availability. The team analyzed both probable (symptom-based) and diagnosed long COVID post administration of COVID-19 vaccine. The incidence of probable long COVID at 4.5% among patients with COVID-19, whereas those diagnosed with long COVID at 0.8%. Adjusting vaccine effectiveness within 12 months came to 35.4% (95 CI 24.5–44.7) against probable long COVID, and 41.7% (15.0–60.0) against diagnosed long COVID. Vaccine effectiveness was higher for adolescents (50.3% [36.6–61.0]) than children aged 5 to 11 (23.8% [4.9–39.0]). Also, vaccine effectiveness was higher at 6 months (61.4% [51.0–69.6]) but decreased to 10.6% (−26.8% to 37.0%) at 18-months, showing any benefit waned considerably.

Published in the journal Pediatrics, the study team conveyed, “It is difficult to establish how much this results from differential reporting of symptoms at different ages, greater difficulty distinguishing long COVID from other childhood illnesses or effects of the pandemic (e.g., disruption of seasonal viral patterns, or of school progress.”