Many children are still not vaccinated in the US due to a lack of options. In this situation, many parents are worried about the safety of children during the pandemic. However, a new study has revealed that vaccinated parents provide indirect protection to their children. The researchers analyzed the health record database from a large group of people across the country.
Parental Vaccination Offers Indirect Protection To Unvaccinated Children
The hospitalization data of infected children were analyzed to arrive at conclusions. It was found that parental vaccination decreased the risk of children getting infected by nearly 20%. This was seen when the parents had taken both doses of vaccines. On the other hand, when parents had taken the booster dose also, the indirect protection offered to children increased to nearly 50%.
The researchers analyzed the data in both the first and second waves of the pandemic. Similar results were seen in both situations. The effect of parental vaccination on children remained the same irrespective of the number of kids in the household and the age group of kids.
Experts feel that vaccination prevents the parents from catching the infection in the first place. In this way, their family members are relatively safe even when parents have more social interactions outside of the home. Even if the vaccinated parents are infected by the virus, they are less likely to infect others as the transmission will be very negligent in such people due to the effect of the vaccines.
This should motivate a lot of unvaccinated parents to take the vaccines in order to protect their family members from future infections. It is also important to take the booster dose as it can offer additional protection from the Omicron variant. The new variant is highly transmissible and causes mild symptoms in most people. However, it has caused breakthrough infections, and even those people who have taken both doses of vaccines are also affected in this wave.
Recent studies have even shown that vaccinated pregnant women can pass on some covid antibodies to babies. In this way, the newborn has some level of protection against the virus. This is great news for parents, and they should take the required dose of vaccines at the earliest in order to avoid infections in the long run. Getting vaccinated not only protects the parents but also their kids to a large extent.
The rate of vaccination is still going on at a slow pace across the US. As the new variant surged across the country within no time, many people were affected even after taking the vaccines. However, most of the vaccinated people did not need hospital admissions as they had only mild infections. In this way, vaccines were definitely effective in preventing extreme outcomes in many cases.
In the last few weeks, the majority of ICU admissions due to Covid infection in the US belong to unvaccinated people. This clearly shows that people who have not taken vaccines are at high risk, and they can suffer from severe complications even in the third wave. Apart from risking their lives, unvaccinated parents also risk the health of their children as the chances of their kids getting infected is high in this situation.
The study focuses on the importance of getting authorized vaccines at the right time. The CDC has even suggested parents go for the booster dose when they become eligible for such doses. In this way, the protection offered by the vaccines will be high for a few more months. This can protect even against the Omicron variant, as proved by many studies. Parents will be able to safeguard their children from infection by taking the necessary precautions.
