According to new projections released by the Commonwealth Fund, nearly 51,000 pediatric hospitalizations could be potentially averted over the coming months with a robust COVID-19 booster campaign among children.
These projections come at a time when due to the spread of RSV, many children’s hospitals across the US are at capacity. RSV is a largely harmless virus among adults and older children but can cause severe illness among young children and infants.
Two scenarios were projected in the Commonwealth Fund’s analysis.
The booster vaccination rates in its first scenario by the end of 2022 match that of flu shot uptake with estimates showing that over 38,000 hospitalizations – nearly 9,000 of which would require stays in ICUs- among children aged up to 17 could be avoided.
The most recent federal data shows that while in the 2021-2022 influenza season, flu vaccine coverage among children aged up to 17 was 57.8%, this season about a quarter of all children has received a flu shot.
In the second scenario of the Commonwealth Fund, around 80% of the eligible US population receive a booster in the same time frame with estimates showing that nearly 51,000 pediatric hospitalizations- more than 11,000 of which would potentially require stays in ICU- could be averted
Given the fact that there are only a few weeks left in 2022 and only 10% of the eligible individuals have gotten a bivalent booster, this outcome seems highly unlikely.
At a time when weekly COVID-19 cases have begun rising, the Biden administration announced on Monday it was launching another initiative to encourage booster uptake while health officials are increasingly urging Americans to soften the effects of a winter surge in coronavirus cases by getting the bivalent COVID booster.
According to the Commonwealth Fund’s estimates published back in October, which also accounted for days spent out of school and in isolation, up to 90,000 lives as well as billions in hospital costs could be saved with a strong COVID-19 booster campaign.
Be the first to comment