Cases of COVID-19 in Unvaccinated Students 8 Times Higher Than Vaccinated Students: Research Analysis

Unvaccinated students at a North Carolina private school had eight times the incidence of COVID-19 infections than their vaccinated peers in a study pre-published online today in Pediatrics. The research analysis, “COVID-19 Incidence Among 6th-12th Grade Students by Vaccination Status,” was pre-published online Tuesday, Feb. 22, and will appear in the May 2022 Pediatrics. Researchers analyzed cases reported in a cohort of 1,128 students (grades 6–12; ages 11–19) from Aug. 1 – Nov. 12, 2021. During the study period, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified county transmission of COVID-19 as “high” and the Delta variant comprised nearly all infections in the region. Among students, 829 (73.5%) were vaccinated and 299 (26.5%) were not. Twenty (6.7%) unvaccinated students reported an infection during the study period, of which 16 (80%) were symptomatic. Seven (0.8%) vaccinated students reported an infection, of which five (71%) were symptomatic. Of the 27 infections, only two were classified as within-school transmissions, both resulting from unmasked exposures to unvaccinated students. Vaccinations substantially reduced COVID-19 incidence among adolescents and -- along with other mitigation measures that included universal masking -- kept students safely in-school during a variant-driven community surge, researchers concluded. This article was peer-reviewed and accepted for publication but is not the final version of record. The research analysis is available here: https://publications.aap.org/journals/collection/657/Pediatric-Collections-COVID-1.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.