🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 84 (from laksa042)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa084.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/28\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html","crawl_time":1772792090,"first_indexed_time":1646062537,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,nytimes!www,\/2022\/02\/28\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html s443","src_root_hash":"4566504020376537684","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Pfizer Shot Is Far Less Effective in 5- to 11-Year-Olds Than in Older Kids, New Data Show - The New York Times","meta_descriptions":["While protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Advertisement\nSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\nWhile protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination.\nA 10-year-old receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn.\nCredit...\nJoseph Prezioso\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\nFeb. 28, 2022\nThe coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to\na large new set of data\ncollected by health officials in New York State — a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents.\nThe Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest.\nThe sharp drop in the vaccine’s performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said.\nThe findings,\nwhich were posted online on Monday\n, come on the heels of clinical trial results indicating that the vaccine fared poorly in children aged 2 to 4 years, who received an even smaller dose.\nExperts worried that the news would further dissuade hesitant parents from immunizing their children. Other studies have shown the vaccine was not powerfully protective against infection with the Omicron variant in adults, either.\n“It’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising, given this is a vaccine developed in response to an earlier variant,” said Eli Rosenberg, deputy director for science at the New York State Department of Health, who led the study. “It looks very distressing to see this rapid decline, but it’s again all against Omicron.”\nStill, he and other public health experts said they recommend the shot for children given the protection against severe disease shown even in the new data set.\n“We need to make sure we emphasize the doughnut and not the hole,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University.\nIn their study, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues analyzed data from 852,384 newly fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the height of the Omicron surge.\nThe vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization declined to 73 percent from 85 percent in the older children. In the younger children, effectiveness dropped to 48 percent from 100 percent. But because few children were hospitalized, these estimates have wide margins of error.\nThe numbers for protection from infection are more reliable. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in the older children decreased to 51 percent from 66 percent. But in the younger children, it dropped sharply to just 12 percent from 68 percent.\nThe numbers change drastically between ages 11 and 12. During the week ending Jan. 30, the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection was 67 percent in 12-year-olds but just 11 percent in 11-year-old children.\n“The difference between the two age groups is striking,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.\nThe biological difference between the two ages is likely to be minimal, but while 12-year-old children got 30 micrograms of the vaccine — the same dose given to adults — children who were 11 received only 10 micrograms, he noted.\n“This is super interesting because it would almost suggest that it’s the dose that makes the difference,” he added. “The question is how to fix that.”\nThere have been at least\n851 deaths involving Covid-19\nin children under 17, and nearly 7,000 cases of\nmultisystem inflammatory syndrome in children\n, a rare but serious condition associated with Covid. More children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic.\nThe findings underscore the need to gather more information on the best dose, number and timing for the shots given to children, Dr. Rosenberg said. They also underscore vaccines as just one measure of protection from the virus, along with masks and social distancing, he said.\nDr. Rosenberg’s research was posted just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released\nnew recommendations\nthat would allow the majority of Americans to stop wearing masks, including in schools.\nThe new data also raises important questions about the Biden administration’s strategy for vaccinating children. Only about one in four children aged 5 to 11 years has received\ntwo doses of the vaccine\n. (The C.D.C. has not yet recommended booster doses for this age group.)\nThe vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. Scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration were scheduled to meet on Feb. 15 to evaluate two doses of the vaccine for the youngest children, while three doses were still being tested. But the meeting was postponed after Pfizer submitted additional data suggesting two doses were not strongly protective against the Omicron variant of the virus.\nDr. Rosenberg briefed top C.D.C. officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, with findings in early February. F.D.A. leaders learned of the data around the same time. Some federal scientists pushed for the data to be made public ahead of the F.D.A. expert meeting scheduled for Feb. 15, viewing it as highly relevant to the discussion about dosing in children under 5, federal officials and others familiar with their responses to it said.\nImage\nA vial of the new children’s dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines\nCredit...\nJoseph Prezioso\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\nThe data is generally consistent with a\nreport from Britain\nshowing that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years drops to 23 percent after two months. The C.D.C. has been compiling its own data on the vaccine’s effectiveness in younger children and is expected to release at least some of it as early as this week, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans.\nIsraeli researchers have also been assessing the vaccine’s performance in young children since the country made it available to them in November.\n“We continue to study and assess real-world data from the vaccine,” Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in response to queries about the new data.\nDr. Philip Krause, who recently retired from the F.D.A. as a senior vaccine regulator, said assumptions about certain antibody levels being predictive of vaccine effectiveness should be re-evaluated in light of the new results.\n“It certainly weakens the argument for mandating that people get that lower dose,” he said.\nIt is not unusual for experts to revisit the dosing and interval for pediatric vaccines as more evidence becomes available. But in this case, giving the children a higher dose to kick up the immune response may not be an option because some data suggest that it may cause too many fevers, an unwelcome and potentially dangerous side effect in young children.\nThere are other alternatives that may improve immunity in young children, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona.\nPfizer and BioNTech are testing a third dose in children under 5, as well as in those aged 5 to 11, with the idea that, as in adults, an extra shot may significantly augment immunity. Results from these trials are expected in several weeks. Studies in adults suggest that three doses of the vaccine were more protective against the Omicron variant than two doses.\nDr. Bhattacharya said he and his wife spaced the two doses for their children, who are 8 and 10, by eight weeks rather than the currently recommended three, based on studies suggesting that a longer gap between doses may improve protection. The C.D.C. last week\nencouraged some people older than 12\n, especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years, to wait eight weeks between the first and second shot.\nAnother option may be a version of the vaccine designed to thwart the Omicron variant, or one that has a mix of several variants. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines.\nThe next variant may differ widely from Omicron, much as Omicron did from the Delta variant. But training the body to recognize multiple versions would still offer a better chance at preventing infection with newer forms of the virus. “Deciding when and how best to update these vaccines, I think that’s really still the key conversation going forward here,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.\nNewer vaccines that use different approaches than the ones currently authorized in the United States may also work better for children. A protein-based vaccine made by Novavax is under review at the F.D.A., and the pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said this month that they plan to submit their vaccine for evaluation soon.\nMany parents want to vaccinate their children to prevent them from spreading the virus to vulnerable relatives, to keep them in school or to avoid the possibility of long Covid, the poorly understood set of lingering symptoms that can occur even after a mild infection. Experts acknowledged that the vaccine’s low effectiveness against infection does not ease those concerns.\nStill, the vaccines “provide more protection than we think,” said Jessica Andriesen, a vaccine data expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.\n“They may also make it so that your kid who brings home Covid isn’t shedding virus as much as they would be if they weren’t vaccinated, and they also may have it for a shorter amount of time,” she said.\nThe virus is here to stay, and children’s risk of severe outcomes increases with age. So inoculating children early is a good idea, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the F.D.A.\n“The argument I make to parents when I talk to them about this vaccine is, your children are going to grow up,” he said. “They’re going to need to be protected against this virus for years.”\nSharon LaFraniere and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.\nApoorva Mandavilli\nis a reporter for The New York Times, focusing on science and global health. She is the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting.\nNoah Weiland\ncovers the coronavirus pandemic as a health reporter in the Washington bureau. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Covid-19 in 2020. He grew up in East Lansing, Mich., and graduated from the University of Chicago.\nA version of this article appears in print on\nMarch 1, 2022\n, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Pfizer Vaccine Is Far Less Effective At Protecting Children Aged 5 to 11\n.\nOrder Reprints\n|\nToday’s Paper\n|\nSubscribe\nRelated Content\nMore in Health\nKent J. Edwards for The New York Times\nKaoly Gutierrez for The New York Times\nLucy Lu for The New York Times\nFederica Bordoni\nEditors’ Picks\nImage by Eric Striffler for The New York Times\nGetty Images\nTrending in The Times\nErik Carter\nKristian Thacker for The New York Times\nJalaa Marey\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\nSenate Judiciary Committee, via Reuters\nTarini Sharma\nThe New York Times\nAmmar Awad\/Reuters\nAmanda Shae Home Team Realty Group\nTierney L. Cross\/The New York Times\nAdvertisement\nSKIP ADVERTISEMENT","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to content](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/28\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/28\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#site-index)\n\nSearch & Section Navigation\n\nSection Navigation\n\nSearch\n\n[Health](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/health)\n\n[Log in](https:\/\/myaccount.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2022%252F02%252F28%252Fhealth%252Fpfizer-vaccine-kids.html&asset=masthead)\n\nFriday, March 6, 2026\n\n[Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper)\n\nU.S. Health Policy\n\n- [Denials of New Drugs](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/health\/fda-drugs-rare-diseases-rfk-jr.html)\n- [Attempt to Revamp Medical School](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/04\/us\/rfk-jr-medical-school-nutrition.html)\n- [Vaccine Schedule Lawsuit](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/24\/health\/vaccine-schedule-california-lawsuit.html)\n- [Moderna Flu Vaccine](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/18\/health\/fda-moderna-flu-vaccine-mrna.html)\n- [Approach to Immunization](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/11\/health\/kennedy-vaccines-children.html)\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/28\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#after-top)\n\nSupported by\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/28\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#after-sponsor)\n# Pfizer Shot Is Far Less Effective in 5- to 11-Year-Olds Than in Older Kids, New Data Show\nWhile protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination.\n\n- Share full article\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2022\/02\/28\/science\/00virus-kids-topart\/00virus-kids-topart-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nA 10-year-old receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn.Credit...Joseph Prezioso\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n\n[![Apoorva Mandavilli](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2020\/07\/07\/reader-center\/author-apoorva-mandavilli\/author-apoorva-mandavilli-thumbLarge-v5.png)](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/apoorva-mandavilli)[![Noah Weiland](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/07\/23\/reader-center\/author-noah-weiland\/author-noah-weiland-thumbLarge.png)](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/noah-weiland)\n\nBy [Apoorva Mandavilli](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/apoorva-mandavilli) and [Noah Weiland](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/noah-weiland)\n\nFeb. 28, 2022\n\nThe coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to [a large new set of data](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2022.02.25.22271454v1) collected by health officials in New York State — a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents.\n\nThe Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest.\n\nThe sharp drop in the vaccine’s performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said.\n\nThe findings, [which were posted online on Monday](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2022.02.25.22271454v1), come on the heels of clinical trial results indicating that the vaccine fared poorly in children aged 2 to 4 years, who received an even smaller dose.\n\nExperts worried that the news would further dissuade hesitant parents from immunizing their children. Other studies have shown the vaccine was not powerfully protective against infection with the Omicron variant in adults, either.\n\n“It’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising, given this is a vaccine developed in response to an earlier variant,” said Eli Rosenberg, deputy director for science at the New York State Department of Health, who led the study. “It looks very distressing to see this rapid decline, but it’s again all against Omicron.”\n\nStill, he and other public health experts said they recommend the shot for children given the protection against severe disease shown even in the new data set.\n\n“We need to make sure we emphasize the doughnut and not the hole,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University.\n\nIn their study, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues analyzed data from 852,384 newly fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the height of the Omicron surge.\n\n## Editors’ Picks\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/10\/well\/04WELL-HOT-WATER1\/04WELL-HOT-WATER1-thumbLarge.jpg)TikTok’s New Favorite Drink? It’s Hot Water.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/04\/well\/eat\/health-benefits-hot-water-tiktok.html)\n\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/arts\/04cul-denmark-women\/04cul-denmark-women-thumbLarge.jpg)The Statues Were Mostly Men or Nude Women. So These Knitters Got to Work.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/arts\/design\/denmark-women-statues-knitting.html)\n\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/04ST-DIOR-REVIEW-7-promo\/04ST-DIOR-REVIEW-7-promo-thumbLarge.jpg)Finally, Clothes That Make Light of Luxury](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/04\/style\/dior-saint-laurent-fall-2026.html)\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/28\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#after-pp_edpick)\n\nThe vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization declined to 73 percent from 85 percent in the older children. In the younger children, effectiveness dropped to 48 percent from 100 percent. But because few children were hospitalized, these estimates have wide margins of error.\n\nThe numbers for protection from infection are more reliable. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in the older children decreased to 51 percent from 66 percent. But in the younger children, it dropped sharply to just 12 percent from 68 percent.\n\nThe numbers change drastically between ages 11 and 12. During the week ending Jan. 30, the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection was 67 percent in 12-year-olds but just 11 percent in 11-year-old children.\n\n“The difference between the two age groups is striking,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.\n\nThe biological difference between the two ages is likely to be minimal, but while 12-year-old children got 30 micrograms of the vaccine — the same dose given to adults — children who were 11 received only 10 micrograms, he noted.\n\n“This is super interesting because it would almost suggest that it’s the dose that makes the difference,” he added. “The question is how to fix that.”\n\nThere have been at least [851 deaths involving Covid-19](https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/nvss\/vsrr\/covid_weekly\/index.htm#SexAndAge) in children under 17, and nearly 7,000 cases of [multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children](https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mis\/index.html), a rare but serious condition associated with Covid. More children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic.\n\nThe findings underscore the need to gather more information on the best dose, number and timing for the shots given to children, Dr. Rosenberg said. They also underscore vaccines as just one measure of protection from the virus, along with masks and social distancing, he said.\n\nDr. Rosenberg’s research was posted just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released [new recommendations](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/25\/health\/cdc-mask-guidance.html) that would allow the majority of Americans to stop wearing masks, including in schools.\n\nThe new data also raises important questions about the Biden administration’s strategy for vaccinating children. Only about one in four children aged 5 to 11 years has received [two doses of the vaccine](https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total). (The C.D.C. has not yet recommended booster doses for this age group.)\n\nThe vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. Scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration were scheduled to meet on Feb. 15 to evaluate two doses of the vaccine for the youngest children, while three doses were still being tested. But the meeting was postponed after Pfizer submitted additional data suggesting two doses were not strongly protective against the Omicron variant of the virus.\n\nDr. Rosenberg briefed top C.D.C. officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, with findings in early February. F.D.A. leaders learned of the data around the same time. Some federal scientists pushed for the data to be made public ahead of the F.D.A. expert meeting scheduled for Feb. 15, viewing it as highly relevant to the discussion about dosing in children under 5, federal officials and others familiar with their responses to it said.\n\nImage\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2022\/02\/28\/science\/00virus-kids-vial\/00virus-kids-vial-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nA vial of the new children’s dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccinesCredit...Joseph Prezioso\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n\nThe data is generally consistent with a [report from Britain](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2021.12.10.21267408v3.full-text) showing that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years drops to 23 percent after two months. The C.D.C. has been compiling its own data on the vaccine’s effectiveness in younger children and is expected to release at least some of it as early as this week, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans.\n\nIsraeli researchers have also been assessing the vaccine’s performance in young children since the country made it available to them in November.\n\n“We continue to study and assess real-world data from the vaccine,” Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in response to queries about the new data.\n\nDr. Philip Krause, who recently retired from the F.D.A. as a senior vaccine regulator, said assumptions about certain antibody levels being predictive of vaccine effectiveness should be re-evaluated in light of the new results.\n\n“It certainly weakens the argument for mandating that people get that lower dose,” he said.\n\nIt is not unusual for experts to revisit the dosing and interval for pediatric vaccines as more evidence becomes available. But in this case, giving the children a higher dose to kick up the immune response may not be an option because some data suggest that it may cause too many fevers, an unwelcome and potentially dangerous side effect in young children.\n\nThere are other alternatives that may improve immunity in young children, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona.\n\nPfizer and BioNTech are testing a third dose in children under 5, as well as in those aged 5 to 11, with the idea that, as in adults, an extra shot may significantly augment immunity. Results from these trials are expected in several weeks. Studies in adults suggest that three doses of the vaccine were more protective against the Omicron variant than two doses.\n\nDr. Bhattacharya said he and his wife spaced the two doses for their children, who are 8 and 10, by eight weeks rather than the currently recommended three, based on studies suggesting that a longer gap between doses may improve protection. The C.D.C. last week [encouraged some people older than 12](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2022\/02\/23\/world\/covid-19-tests-cases-vaccine#pfizer-moderna-vaccine-dose-men), especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years, to wait eight weeks between the first and second shot.\n\nAnother option may be a version of the vaccine designed to thwart the Omicron variant, or one that has a mix of several variants. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines.\n\nThe next variant may differ widely from Omicron, much as Omicron did from the Delta variant. But training the body to recognize multiple versions would still offer a better chance at preventing infection with newer forms of the virus. “Deciding when and how best to update these vaccines, I think that’s really still the key conversation going forward here,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.\n\nNewer vaccines that use different approaches than the ones currently authorized in the United States may also work better for children. A protein-based vaccine made by Novavax is under review at the F.D.A., and the pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said this month that they plan to submit their vaccine for evaluation soon.\n\nMany parents want to vaccinate their children to prevent them from spreading the virus to vulnerable relatives, to keep them in school or to avoid the possibility of long Covid, the poorly understood set of lingering symptoms that can occur even after a mild infection. Experts acknowledged that the vaccine’s low effectiveness against infection does not ease those concerns.\n\nStill, the vaccines “provide more protection than we think,” said Jessica Andriesen, a vaccine data expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.\n\n“They may also make it so that your kid who brings home Covid isn’t shedding virus as much as they would be if they weren’t vaccinated, and they also may have it for a shorter amount of time,” she said.\n\nThe virus is here to stay, and children’s risk of severe outcomes increases with age. So inoculating children early is a good idea, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the F.D.A.\n\n“The argument I make to parents when I talk to them about this vaccine is, your children are going to grow up,” he said. “They’re going to need to be protected against this virus for years.”\n\nSharon LaFraniere and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.\n\nCoronavirus Vaccines for Children\n\n[![]()The Latest on Vaccines for Kids Under 5](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2022\/02\/17\/health\/covid-vaccine-kids-under-5.html)\n\n[![]()The Next Vaccine Debate: Immunize Young Children Now, or Wait? Feb. 9, 2022](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/09\/health\/covid-kids-vaccines.html)\n\n[![]()F.D.A. Clears First Coronavirus Vaccine for 5- to 11-Year-Olds Oct. 29, 2021](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/29\/us\/politics\/covid-vaccine-children.html)\n\n[![]()F.D.A. Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine for Children 12 to 15 May 10, 2021](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/05\/10\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-children-kids.html)\n\n[Apoorva Mandavilli](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/apoorva-mandavilli) is a reporter for The New York Times, focusing on science and global health. She is the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting.\n\n[Noah Weiland](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/noah-weiland) covers the coronavirus pandemic as a health reporter in the Washington bureau. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Covid-19 in 2020. He grew up in East Lansing, Mich., and graduated from the University of Chicago.\n\nA version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2022, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Pfizer Vaccine Is Far Less Effective At Protecting Children Aged 5 to 11. [Order Reprints](https:\/\/nytimes.wrightsmedia.com\/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)\n\nSee more on: [Pfizer Inc.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/topic\/company\/pfizer-inc), [BioNTech SE](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/topic\/biontech-se)\n\n- Share full article\n\n## Related Content\n### [More in Health](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/health)\n- [They Helped Her Open a Weed Shop. Now They’re Suing for \\$2.5 Million.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/nyregion\/cannabis-housingworks-new-york-dispute.html)\n  \n  ![Leeann Mata says that Housing Works has not delivered on the agreement to help develop her cannabis dispensary, Matawana.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/20\/multimedia\/00met-cannabis-housingworks-gzwj\/00met-cannabis-housingworks-gzwj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Kent J. 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[Subscriptions](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscription?campaignId=37WXW)","attrs_readable_markdown":"Advertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/28\/health\/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#after-top)\n\nWhile protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination.\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2022\/02\/28\/science\/00virus-kids-topart\/00virus-kids-topart-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nA 10-year-old receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn.Credit...Joseph Prezioso\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n\nFeb. 28, 2022\n\nThe coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to [a large new set of data](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2022.02.25.22271454v1) collected by health officials in New York State — a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents.\n\nThe Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest.\n\nThe sharp drop in the vaccine’s performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said.\n\nThe findings, [which were posted online on Monday](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2022.02.25.22271454v1), come on the heels of clinical trial results indicating that the vaccine fared poorly in children aged 2 to 4 years, who received an even smaller dose.\n\nExperts worried that the news would further dissuade hesitant parents from immunizing their children. Other studies have shown the vaccine was not powerfully protective against infection with the Omicron variant in adults, either.\n\n“It’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising, given this is a vaccine developed in response to an earlier variant,” said Eli Rosenberg, deputy director for science at the New York State Department of Health, who led the study. “It looks very distressing to see this rapid decline, but it’s again all against Omicron.”\n\nStill, he and other public health experts said they recommend the shot for children given the protection against severe disease shown even in the new data set.\n\n“We need to make sure we emphasize the doughnut and not the hole,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University.\n\nIn their study, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues analyzed data from 852,384 newly fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the height of the Omicron surge.\n\nThe vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization declined to 73 percent from 85 percent in the older children. In the younger children, effectiveness dropped to 48 percent from 100 percent. But because few children were hospitalized, these estimates have wide margins of error.\n\nThe numbers for protection from infection are more reliable. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in the older children decreased to 51 percent from 66 percent. But in the younger children, it dropped sharply to just 12 percent from 68 percent.\n\nThe numbers change drastically between ages 11 and 12. During the week ending Jan. 30, the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection was 67 percent in 12-year-olds but just 11 percent in 11-year-old children.\n\n“The difference between the two age groups is striking,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.\n\nThe biological difference between the two ages is likely to be minimal, but while 12-year-old children got 30 micrograms of the vaccine — the same dose given to adults — children who were 11 received only 10 micrograms, he noted.\n\n“This is super interesting because it would almost suggest that it’s the dose that makes the difference,” he added. “The question is how to fix that.”\n\nThere have been at least [851 deaths involving Covid-19](https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/nvss\/vsrr\/covid_weekly\/index.htm#SexAndAge) in children under 17, and nearly 7,000 cases of [multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children](https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mis\/index.html), a rare but serious condition associated with Covid. More children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic.\n\nThe findings underscore the need to gather more information on the best dose, number and timing for the shots given to children, Dr. Rosenberg said. They also underscore vaccines as just one measure of protection from the virus, along with masks and social distancing, he said.\n\nDr. Rosenberg’s research was posted just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released [new recommendations](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/25\/health\/cdc-mask-guidance.html) that would allow the majority of Americans to stop wearing masks, including in schools.\n\nThe new data also raises important questions about the Biden administration’s strategy for vaccinating children. Only about one in four children aged 5 to 11 years has received [two doses of the vaccine](https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total). (The C.D.C. has not yet recommended booster doses for this age group.)\n\nThe vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. Scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration were scheduled to meet on Feb. 15 to evaluate two doses of the vaccine for the youngest children, while three doses were still being tested. But the meeting was postponed after Pfizer submitted additional data suggesting two doses were not strongly protective against the Omicron variant of the virus.\n\nDr. Rosenberg briefed top C.D.C. officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, with findings in early February. F.D.A. leaders learned of the data around the same time. Some federal scientists pushed for the data to be made public ahead of the F.D.A. expert meeting scheduled for Feb. 15, viewing it as highly relevant to the discussion about dosing in children under 5, federal officials and others familiar with their responses to it said.\n\nImage\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2022\/02\/28\/science\/00virus-kids-vial\/00virus-kids-vial-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nA vial of the new children’s dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccinesCredit...Joseph Prezioso\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n\nThe data is generally consistent with a [report from Britain](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2021.12.10.21267408v3.full-text) showing that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years drops to 23 percent after two months. The C.D.C. has been compiling its own data on the vaccine’s effectiveness in younger children and is expected to release at least some of it as early as this week, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans.\n\nIsraeli researchers have also been assessing the vaccine’s performance in young children since the country made it available to them in November.\n\n“We continue to study and assess real-world data from the vaccine,” Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in response to queries about the new data.\n\nDr. Philip Krause, who recently retired from the F.D.A. as a senior vaccine regulator, said assumptions about certain antibody levels being predictive of vaccine effectiveness should be re-evaluated in light of the new results.\n\n“It certainly weakens the argument for mandating that people get that lower dose,” he said.\n\nIt is not unusual for experts to revisit the dosing and interval for pediatric vaccines as more evidence becomes available. But in this case, giving the children a higher dose to kick up the immune response may not be an option because some data suggest that it may cause too many fevers, an unwelcome and potentially dangerous side effect in young children.\n\nThere are other alternatives that may improve immunity in young children, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona.\n\nPfizer and BioNTech are testing a third dose in children under 5, as well as in those aged 5 to 11, with the idea that, as in adults, an extra shot may significantly augment immunity. Results from these trials are expected in several weeks. Studies in adults suggest that three doses of the vaccine were more protective against the Omicron variant than two doses.\n\nDr. Bhattacharya said he and his wife spaced the two doses for their children, who are 8 and 10, by eight weeks rather than the currently recommended three, based on studies suggesting that a longer gap between doses may improve protection. The C.D.C. last week [encouraged some people older than 12](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2022\/02\/23\/world\/covid-19-tests-cases-vaccine#pfizer-moderna-vaccine-dose-men), especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years, to wait eight weeks between the first and second shot.\n\nAnother option may be a version of the vaccine designed to thwart the Omicron variant, or one that has a mix of several variants. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines.\n\nThe next variant may differ widely from Omicron, much as Omicron did from the Delta variant. But training the body to recognize multiple versions would still offer a better chance at preventing infection with newer forms of the virus. “Deciding when and how best to update these vaccines, I think that’s really still the key conversation going forward here,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.\n\nNewer vaccines that use different approaches than the ones currently authorized in the United States may also work better for children. A protein-based vaccine made by Novavax is under review at the F.D.A., and the pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said this month that they plan to submit their vaccine for evaluation soon.\n\nMany parents want to vaccinate their children to prevent them from spreading the virus to vulnerable relatives, to keep them in school or to avoid the possibility of long Covid, the poorly understood set of lingering symptoms that can occur even after a mild infection. Experts acknowledged that the vaccine’s low effectiveness against infection does not ease those concerns.\n\nStill, the vaccines “provide more protection than we think,” said Jessica Andriesen, a vaccine data expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.\n\n“They may also make it so that your kid who brings home Covid isn’t shedding virus as much as they would be if they weren’t vaccinated, and they also may have it for a shorter amount of time,” she said.\n\nThe virus is here to stay, and children’s risk of severe outcomes increases with age. So inoculating children early is a good idea, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the F.D.A.\n\n“The argument I make to parents when I talk to them about this vaccine is, your children are going to grow up,” he said. “They’re going to need to be protected against this virus for years.”\n\nSharon LaFraniere and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.\n\n[Apoorva Mandavilli](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/apoorva-mandavilli) is a reporter for The New York Times, focusing on science and global health. She is the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting.\n\n[Noah Weiland](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/noah-weiland) covers the coronavirus pandemic as a health reporter in the Washington bureau. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Covid-19 in 2020. He grew up in East Lansing, Mich., and graduated from the University of Chicago.\n\nA version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2022, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Pfizer Vaccine Is Far Less Effective At Protecting Children Aged 5 to 11. [Order Reprints](https:\/\/nytimes.wrightsmedia.com\/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)\n\n## Related Content\n[More in Health](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/health)\n\n- ![Leeann Mata says that Housing Works has not delivered on the agreement to help develop her cannabis dispensary, Matawana.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/20\/multimedia\/00met-cannabis-housingworks-gzwj\/00met-cannabis-housingworks-gzwj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Kent J. Edwards for The New York Times\n- ![Uptake of the vaccine has been slow, like at this public health fair at The University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville, S.C.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/03\/multimedia\/03nat-measles-southcarolina-01-kcqv\/03nat-measles-southcarolina-01-kcqv-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Kaoly Gutierrez for The New York Times\n- ![Leah Stavenhagen, right, with her mother, Susan Stavenhagen, at a retreat in North Falmouth, Mass., last August.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/27\/multimedia\/23hs-stavenhagen-02-gtwk-print1-SUB\/23hs-stavenhagen-02-gtwk-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Lucy Lu for The New York Times\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/03\/science\/03sci-SPAN-financial-predators\/03sci-SPAN-financial-predators-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Federica Bordoni\n\nEditors’ Picks\n\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/10\/10\/autossell\/10listing-billyjoel-still\/10listing-billyjoel-still-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Image by Eric Striffler for The New York Times\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/08\/fashion\/03ST-SEXUAL-MARKET-VALUE-fkct\/03ST-SEXUAL-MARKET-VALUE-fkct-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Getty Images\n\nTrending in The Times\n\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/opinion\/05steinberger\/05steinberger-square640-v3.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Erik Carter\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/04HS-weight-loss-zgtw\/04HS-weight-loss-zgtw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Kristian Thacker for The New York Times\n- ![Israeli soldiers near the border with Lebanon on Monday.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/03\/multimedia\/03iran-live-LEBANON-FIGHTING-twch\/03iran-live-LEBANON-FIGHTING-twch-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Jalaa Marey\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/us\/politics\/Kristi-THumb\/Kristi-THumb-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Senate Judiciary Committee, via Reuters\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/opinion\/05Vartkessian\/05Vartkessian-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Tarini Sharma\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/02\/world\/02wea-quake-tracker-northern-california-nytiruy5-index\/02wea-quake-tracker-northern-california-nytiruy5-index-square640-v19.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  The New York Times\n- ![An missile fired to intercept incoming fire flying over Jerusalem on Sunday, with the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound visible in the foreground.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05Israel-aqsa-06-vcpw\/05Israel-aqsa-06-vcpw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Ammar Awad\/Reuters\n- ![The City Hall tower in Maastricht, the southernmost city in the Netherlands.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06sp-tefaf-french-inyt-03-tglf\/06sp-tefaf-french-inyt-03-tglf-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/realestate\/04re-wyg-Louisville\/04re-wyg-Louisville-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Amanda Shae Home Team Realty Group\n- ![Ms. Noem testified on Capitol Hill this week.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05dc-NOEM-TENURE-zwct\/05dc-NOEM-TENURE-zwct-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Tierney L. 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Meta Title	Pfizer Shot Is Far Less Effective in 5- to 11-Year-Olds Than in Older Kids, New Data Show - The New York Times
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Boilerpipe Text	Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT While protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination. A 10-year-old receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn. Credit... Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Feb. 28, 2022 The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to a large new set of data collected by health officials in New York State — a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents. The Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest. The sharp drop in the vaccine’s performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said. The findings, which were posted online on Monday , come on the heels of clinical trial results indicating that the vaccine fared poorly in children aged 2 to 4 years, who received an even smaller dose. Experts worried that the news would further dissuade hesitant parents from immunizing their children. Other studies have shown the vaccine was not powerfully protective against infection with the Omicron variant in adults, either. “It’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising, given this is a vaccine developed in response to an earlier variant,” said Eli Rosenberg, deputy director for science at the New York State Department of Health, who led the study. “It looks very distressing to see this rapid decline, but it’s again all against Omicron.” Still, he and other public health experts said they recommend the shot for children given the protection against severe disease shown even in the new data set. “We need to make sure we emphasize the doughnut and not the hole,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University. In their study, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues analyzed data from 852,384 newly fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the height of the Omicron surge. The vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization declined to 73 percent from 85 percent in the older children. In the younger children, effectiveness dropped to 48 percent from 100 percent. But because few children were hospitalized, these estimates have wide margins of error. The numbers for protection from infection are more reliable. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in the older children decreased to 51 percent from 66 percent. But in the younger children, it dropped sharply to just 12 percent from 68 percent. The numbers change drastically between ages 11 and 12. During the week ending Jan. 30, the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection was 67 percent in 12-year-olds but just 11 percent in 11-year-old children. “The difference between the two age groups is striking,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The biological difference between the two ages is likely to be minimal, but while 12-year-old children got 30 micrograms of the vaccine — the same dose given to adults — children who were 11 received only 10 micrograms, he noted. “This is super interesting because it would almost suggest that it’s the dose that makes the difference,” he added. “The question is how to fix that.” There have been at least 851 deaths involving Covid-19 in children under 17, and nearly 7,000 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children , a rare but serious condition associated with Covid. More children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic. The findings underscore the need to gather more information on the best dose, number and timing for the shots given to children, Dr. Rosenberg said. They also underscore vaccines as just one measure of protection from the virus, along with masks and social distancing, he said. Dr. Rosenberg’s research was posted just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new recommendations that would allow the majority of Americans to stop wearing masks, including in schools. The new data also raises important questions about the Biden administration’s strategy for vaccinating children. Only about one in four children aged 5 to 11 years has received two doses of the vaccine . (The C.D.C. has not yet recommended booster doses for this age group.) The vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. Scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration were scheduled to meet on Feb. 15 to evaluate two doses of the vaccine for the youngest children, while three doses were still being tested. But the meeting was postponed after Pfizer submitted additional data suggesting two doses were not strongly protective against the Omicron variant of the virus. Dr. Rosenberg briefed top C.D.C. officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, with findings in early February. F.D.A. leaders learned of the data around the same time. Some federal scientists pushed for the data to be made public ahead of the F.D.A. expert meeting scheduled for Feb. 15, viewing it as highly relevant to the discussion about dosing in children under 5, federal officials and others familiar with their responses to it said. Image A vial of the new children’s dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines Credit... Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The data is generally consistent with a report from Britain showing that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years drops to 23 percent after two months. The C.D.C. has been compiling its own data on the vaccine’s effectiveness in younger children and is expected to release at least some of it as early as this week, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans. Israeli researchers have also been assessing the vaccine’s performance in young children since the country made it available to them in November. “We continue to study and assess real-world data from the vaccine,” Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in response to queries about the new data. Dr. Philip Krause, who recently retired from the F.D.A. as a senior vaccine regulator, said assumptions about certain antibody levels being predictive of vaccine effectiveness should be re-evaluated in light of the new results. “It certainly weakens the argument for mandating that people get that lower dose,” he said. It is not unusual for experts to revisit the dosing and interval for pediatric vaccines as more evidence becomes available. But in this case, giving the children a higher dose to kick up the immune response may not be an option because some data suggest that it may cause too many fevers, an unwelcome and potentially dangerous side effect in young children. There are other alternatives that may improve immunity in young children, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. Pfizer and BioNTech are testing a third dose in children under 5, as well as in those aged 5 to 11, with the idea that, as in adults, an extra shot may significantly augment immunity. Results from these trials are expected in several weeks. Studies in adults suggest that three doses of the vaccine were more protective against the Omicron variant than two doses. Dr. Bhattacharya said he and his wife spaced the two doses for their children, who are 8 and 10, by eight weeks rather than the currently recommended three, based on studies suggesting that a longer gap between doses may improve protection. The C.D.C. last week encouraged some people older than 12 , especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years, to wait eight weeks between the first and second shot. Another option may be a version of the vaccine designed to thwart the Omicron variant, or one that has a mix of several variants. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines. The next variant may differ widely from Omicron, much as Omicron did from the Delta variant. But training the body to recognize multiple versions would still offer a better chance at preventing infection with newer forms of the virus. “Deciding when and how best to update these vaccines, I think that’s really still the key conversation going forward here,” Dr. Bhattacharya said. Newer vaccines that use different approaches than the ones currently authorized in the United States may also work better for children. A protein-based vaccine made by Novavax is under review at the F.D.A., and the pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said this month that they plan to submit their vaccine for evaluation soon. Many parents want to vaccinate their children to prevent them from spreading the virus to vulnerable relatives, to keep them in school or to avoid the possibility of long Covid, the poorly understood set of lingering symptoms that can occur even after a mild infection. Experts acknowledged that the vaccine’s low effectiveness against infection does not ease those concerns. Still, the vaccines “provide more protection than we think,” said Jessica Andriesen, a vaccine data expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “They may also make it so that your kid who brings home Covid isn’t shedding virus as much as they would be if they weren’t vaccinated, and they also may have it for a shorter amount of time,” she said. The virus is here to stay, and children’s risk of severe outcomes increases with age. So inoculating children early is a good idea, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the F.D.A. “The argument I make to parents when I talk to them about this vaccine is, your children are going to grow up,” he said. “They’re going to need to be protected against this virus for years.” Sharon LaFraniere and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting. Apoorva Mandavilli is a reporter for The New York Times, focusing on science and global health. She is the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. Noah Weiland covers the coronavirus pandemic as a health reporter in the Washington bureau. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Covid-19 in 2020. He grew up in East Lansing, Mich., and graduated from the University of Chicago. A version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2022 , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Pfizer Vaccine Is Far Less Effective At Protecting Children Aged 5 to 11 . Order Reprints \| Today’s Paper \| Subscribe Related Content More in Health Kent J. Edwards for The New York Times Kaoly Gutierrez for The New York Times Lucy Lu for The New York Times Federica Bordoni Editors’ Picks Image by Eric Striffler for The New York Times Getty Images Trending in The Times Erik Carter Kristian Thacker for The New York Times Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Senate Judiciary Committee, via Reuters Tarini Sharma The New York Times Ammar Awad/Reuters Amanda Shae Home Team Realty Group Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Markdown	[Skip to content](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#site-index) Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation Search [Health](https://www.nytimes.com/section/health) [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2022%252F02%252F28%252Fhealth%252Fpfizer-vaccine-kids.html&asset=masthead) Friday, March 6, 2026 [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) U.S. Health Policy - [Denials of New Drugs](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/health/fda-drugs-rare-diseases-rfk-jr.html) - [Attempt to Revamp Medical School](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/us/rfk-jr-medical-school-nutrition.html) - [Vaccine Schedule Lawsuit](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/health/vaccine-schedule-california-lawsuit.html) - [Moderna Flu Vaccine](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/health/fda-moderna-flu-vaccine-mrna.html) - [Approach to Immunization](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/health/kennedy-vaccines-children.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#after-top) Supported by [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#after-sponsor) # Pfizer Shot Is Far Less Effective in 5- to 11-Year-Olds Than in Older Kids, New Data Show While protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination. - Share full article ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/02/28/science/00virus-kids-topart/00virus-kids-topart-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) A 10-year-old receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn.Credit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images [![Apoorva Mandavilli](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/07/07/reader-center/author-apoorva-mandavilli/author-apoorva-mandavilli-thumbLarge-v5.png)](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli)[![Noah Weiland](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/07/23/reader-center/author-noah-weiland/author-noah-weiland-thumbLarge.png)](https://www.nytimes.com/by/noah-weiland) By [Apoorva Mandavilli](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli) and [Noah Weiland](https://www.nytimes.com/by/noah-weiland) Feb. 28, 2022 The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to [a large new set of data](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.25.22271454v1) collected by health officials in New York State — a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents. The Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest. The sharp drop in the vaccine’s performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said. The findings, [which were posted online on Monday](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.25.22271454v1), come on the heels of clinical trial results indicating that the vaccine fared poorly in children aged 2 to 4 years, who received an even smaller dose. Experts worried that the news would further dissuade hesitant parents from immunizing their children. Other studies have shown the vaccine was not powerfully protective against infection with the Omicron variant in adults, either. “It’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising, given this is a vaccine developed in response to an earlier variant,” said Eli Rosenberg, deputy director for science at the New York State Department of Health, who led the study. “It looks very distressing to see this rapid decline, but it’s again all against Omicron.” Still, he and other public health experts said they recommend the shot for children given the protection against severe disease shown even in the new data set. “We need to make sure we emphasize the doughnut and not the hole,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University. In their study, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues analyzed data from 852,384 newly fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the height of the Omicron surge. ## Editors’ Picks [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/10/well/04WELL-HOT-WATER1/04WELL-HOT-WATER1-thumbLarge.jpg)TikTok’s New Favorite Drink? It’s Hot Water.](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/well/eat/health-benefits-hot-water-tiktok.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/04/arts/04cul-denmark-women/04cul-denmark-women-thumbLarge.jpg)The Statues Were Mostly Men or Nude Women. So These Knitters Got to Work.](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/arts/design/denmark-women-statues-knitting.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/04/multimedia/04ST-DIOR-REVIEW-7-promo/04ST-DIOR-REVIEW-7-promo-thumbLarge.jpg)Finally, Clothes That Make Light of Luxury](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/style/dior-saint-laurent-fall-2026.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#after-pp_edpick) The vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization declined to 73 percent from 85 percent in the older children. In the younger children, effectiveness dropped to 48 percent from 100 percent. But because few children were hospitalized, these estimates have wide margins of error. The numbers for protection from infection are more reliable. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in the older children decreased to 51 percent from 66 percent. But in the younger children, it dropped sharply to just 12 percent from 68 percent. The numbers change drastically between ages 11 and 12. During the week ending Jan. 30, the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection was 67 percent in 12-year-olds but just 11 percent in 11-year-old children. “The difference between the two age groups is striking,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The biological difference between the two ages is likely to be minimal, but while 12-year-old children got 30 micrograms of the vaccine — the same dose given to adults — children who were 11 received only 10 micrograms, he noted. “This is super interesting because it would almost suggest that it’s the dose that makes the difference,” he added. “The question is how to fix that.” There have been at least [851 deaths involving Covid-19](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge) in children under 17, and nearly 7,000 cases of [multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children](https://www.cdc.gov/mis/index.html), a rare but serious condition associated with Covid. More children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic. The findings underscore the need to gather more information on the best dose, number and timing for the shots given to children, Dr. Rosenberg said. They also underscore vaccines as just one measure of protection from the virus, along with masks and social distancing, he said. Dr. Rosenberg’s research was posted just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released [new recommendations](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/health/cdc-mask-guidance.html) that would allow the majority of Americans to stop wearing masks, including in schools. The new data also raises important questions about the Biden administration’s strategy for vaccinating children. Only about one in four children aged 5 to 11 years has received [two doses of the vaccine](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total). (The C.D.C. has not yet recommended booster doses for this age group.) The vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. Scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration were scheduled to meet on Feb. 15 to evaluate two doses of the vaccine for the youngest children, while three doses were still being tested. But the meeting was postponed after Pfizer submitted additional data suggesting two doses were not strongly protective against the Omicron variant of the virus. Dr. Rosenberg briefed top C.D.C. officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, with findings in early February. F.D.A. leaders learned of the data around the same time. Some federal scientists pushed for the data to be made public ahead of the F.D.A. expert meeting scheduled for Feb. 15, viewing it as highly relevant to the discussion about dosing in children under 5, federal officials and others familiar with their responses to it said. Image ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/02/28/science/00virus-kids-vial/00virus-kids-vial-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) A vial of the new children’s dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccinesCredit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The data is generally consistent with a [report from Britain](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.10.21267408v3.full-text) showing that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years drops to 23 percent after two months. The C.D.C. has been compiling its own data on the vaccine’s effectiveness in younger children and is expected to release at least some of it as early as this week, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans. Israeli researchers have also been assessing the vaccine’s performance in young children since the country made it available to them in November. “We continue to study and assess real-world data from the vaccine,” Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in response to queries about the new data. Dr. Philip Krause, who recently retired from the F.D.A. as a senior vaccine regulator, said assumptions about certain antibody levels being predictive of vaccine effectiveness should be re-evaluated in light of the new results. “It certainly weakens the argument for mandating that people get that lower dose,” he said. It is not unusual for experts to revisit the dosing and interval for pediatric vaccines as more evidence becomes available. But in this case, giving the children a higher dose to kick up the immune response may not be an option because some data suggest that it may cause too many fevers, an unwelcome and potentially dangerous side effect in young children. There are other alternatives that may improve immunity in young children, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. Pfizer and BioNTech are testing a third dose in children under 5, as well as in those aged 5 to 11, with the idea that, as in adults, an extra shot may significantly augment immunity. Results from these trials are expected in several weeks. Studies in adults suggest that three doses of the vaccine were more protective against the Omicron variant than two doses. Dr. Bhattacharya said he and his wife spaced the two doses for their children, who are 8 and 10, by eight weeks rather than the currently recommended three, based on studies suggesting that a longer gap between doses may improve protection. The C.D.C. last week [encouraged some people older than 12](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/23/world/covid-19-tests-cases-vaccine#pfizer-moderna-vaccine-dose-men), especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years, to wait eight weeks between the first and second shot. Another option may be a version of the vaccine designed to thwart the Omicron variant, or one that has a mix of several variants. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines. The next variant may differ widely from Omicron, much as Omicron did from the Delta variant. But training the body to recognize multiple versions would still offer a better chance at preventing infection with newer forms of the virus. “Deciding when and how best to update these vaccines, I think that’s really still the key conversation going forward here,” Dr. Bhattacharya said. Newer vaccines that use different approaches than the ones currently authorized in the United States may also work better for children. A protein-based vaccine made by Novavax is under review at the F.D.A., and the pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said this month that they plan to submit their vaccine for evaluation soon. Many parents want to vaccinate their children to prevent them from spreading the virus to vulnerable relatives, to keep them in school or to avoid the possibility of long Covid, the poorly understood set of lingering symptoms that can occur even after a mild infection. Experts acknowledged that the vaccine’s low effectiveness against infection does not ease those concerns. Still, the vaccines “provide more protection than we think,” said Jessica Andriesen, a vaccine data expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “They may also make it so that your kid who brings home Covid isn’t shedding virus as much as they would be if they weren’t vaccinated, and they also may have it for a shorter amount of time,” she said. The virus is here to stay, and children’s risk of severe outcomes increases with age. So inoculating children early is a good idea, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the F.D.A. “The argument I make to parents when I talk to them about this vaccine is, your children are going to grow up,” he said. “They’re going to need to be protected against this virus for years.” Sharon LaFraniere and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting. Coronavirus Vaccines for Children [![]()The Latest on Vaccines for Kids Under 5](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/17/health/covid-vaccine-kids-under-5.html) [![]()The Next Vaccine Debate: Immunize Young Children Now, or Wait? Feb. 9, 2022](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/health/covid-kids-vaccines.html) [![]()F.D.A. Clears First Coronavirus Vaccine for 5- to 11-Year-Olds Oct. 29, 2021](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/politics/covid-vaccine-children.html) [![]()F.D.A. Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine for Children 12 to 15 May 10, 2021](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/health/pfizer-vaccine-children-kids.html) [Apoorva Mandavilli](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli) is a reporter for The New York Times, focusing on science and global health. She is the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. [Noah Weiland](https://www.nytimes.com/by/noah-weiland) covers the coronavirus pandemic as a health reporter in the Washington bureau. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Covid-19 in 2020. He grew up in East Lansing, Mich., and graduated from the University of Chicago. A version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2022, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Pfizer Vaccine Is Far Less Effective At Protecting Children Aged 5 to 11. [Order Reprints](https://nytimes.wrightsmedia.com/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY) See more on: [Pfizer Inc.](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/company/pfizer-inc), [BioNTech SE](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/biontech-se) - Share full article ## Related Content ### [More in Health](https://www.nytimes.com/section/health) - [They Helped Her Open a Weed Shop. 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Readable Markdown	Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html#after-top) While protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination. ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/02/28/science/00virus-kids-topart/00virus-kids-topart-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) A 10-year-old receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn.Credit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Feb. 28, 2022 The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to [a large new set of data](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.25.22271454v1) collected by health officials in New York State — a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents. The Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest. The sharp drop in the vaccine’s performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said. The findings, [which were posted online on Monday](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.25.22271454v1), come on the heels of clinical trial results indicating that the vaccine fared poorly in children aged 2 to 4 years, who received an even smaller dose. Experts worried that the news would further dissuade hesitant parents from immunizing their children. Other studies have shown the vaccine was not powerfully protective against infection with the Omicron variant in adults, either. “It’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising, given this is a vaccine developed in response to an earlier variant,” said Eli Rosenberg, deputy director for science at the New York State Department of Health, who led the study. “It looks very distressing to see this rapid decline, but it’s again all against Omicron.” Still, he and other public health experts said they recommend the shot for children given the protection against severe disease shown even in the new data set. “We need to make sure we emphasize the doughnut and not the hole,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University. In their study, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues analyzed data from 852,384 newly fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the height of the Omicron surge. The vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization declined to 73 percent from 85 percent in the older children. In the younger children, effectiveness dropped to 48 percent from 100 percent. But because few children were hospitalized, these estimates have wide margins of error. The numbers for protection from infection are more reliable. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in the older children decreased to 51 percent from 66 percent. But in the younger children, it dropped sharply to just 12 percent from 68 percent. The numbers change drastically between ages 11 and 12. During the week ending Jan. 30, the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection was 67 percent in 12-year-olds but just 11 percent in 11-year-old children. “The difference between the two age groups is striking,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The biological difference between the two ages is likely to be minimal, but while 12-year-old children got 30 micrograms of the vaccine — the same dose given to adults — children who were 11 received only 10 micrograms, he noted. “This is super interesting because it would almost suggest that it’s the dose that makes the difference,” he added. “The question is how to fix that.” There have been at least [851 deaths involving Covid-19](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge) in children under 17, and nearly 7,000 cases of [multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children](https://www.cdc.gov/mis/index.html), a rare but serious condition associated with Covid. More children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic. The findings underscore the need to gather more information on the best dose, number and timing for the shots given to children, Dr. Rosenberg said. They also underscore vaccines as just one measure of protection from the virus, along with masks and social distancing, he said. Dr. Rosenberg’s research was posted just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released [new recommendations](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/health/cdc-mask-guidance.html) that would allow the majority of Americans to stop wearing masks, including in schools. The new data also raises important questions about the Biden administration’s strategy for vaccinating children. Only about one in four children aged 5 to 11 years has received [two doses of the vaccine](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total). (The C.D.C. has not yet recommended booster doses for this age group.) The vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. Scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration were scheduled to meet on Feb. 15 to evaluate two doses of the vaccine for the youngest children, while three doses were still being tested. But the meeting was postponed after Pfizer submitted additional data suggesting two doses were not strongly protective against the Omicron variant of the virus. Dr. Rosenberg briefed top C.D.C. officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, with findings in early February. F.D.A. leaders learned of the data around the same time. Some federal scientists pushed for the data to be made public ahead of the F.D.A. expert meeting scheduled for Feb. 15, viewing it as highly relevant to the discussion about dosing in children under 5, federal officials and others familiar with their responses to it said. Image ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/02/28/science/00virus-kids-vial/00virus-kids-vial-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) A vial of the new children’s dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccinesCredit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The data is generally consistent with a [report from Britain](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.10.21267408v3.full-text) showing that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years drops to 23 percent after two months. The C.D.C. has been compiling its own data on the vaccine’s effectiveness in younger children and is expected to release at least some of it as early as this week, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans. Israeli researchers have also been assessing the vaccine’s performance in young children since the country made it available to them in November. “We continue to study and assess real-world data from the vaccine,” Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in response to queries about the new data. Dr. Philip Krause, who recently retired from the F.D.A. as a senior vaccine regulator, said assumptions about certain antibody levels being predictive of vaccine effectiveness should be re-evaluated in light of the new results. “It certainly weakens the argument for mandating that people get that lower dose,” he said. It is not unusual for experts to revisit the dosing and interval for pediatric vaccines as more evidence becomes available. But in this case, giving the children a higher dose to kick up the immune response may not be an option because some data suggest that it may cause too many fevers, an unwelcome and potentially dangerous side effect in young children. There are other alternatives that may improve immunity in young children, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. Pfizer and BioNTech are testing a third dose in children under 5, as well as in those aged 5 to 11, with the idea that, as in adults, an extra shot may significantly augment immunity. Results from these trials are expected in several weeks. Studies in adults suggest that three doses of the vaccine were more protective against the Omicron variant than two doses. Dr. Bhattacharya said he and his wife spaced the two doses for their children, who are 8 and 10, by eight weeks rather than the currently recommended three, based on studies suggesting that a longer gap between doses may improve protection. The C.D.C. last week [encouraged some people older than 12](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/23/world/covid-19-tests-cases-vaccine#pfizer-moderna-vaccine-dose-men), especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years, to wait eight weeks between the first and second shot. Another option may be a version of the vaccine designed to thwart the Omicron variant, or one that has a mix of several variants. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines. The next variant may differ widely from Omicron, much as Omicron did from the Delta variant. But training the body to recognize multiple versions would still offer a better chance at preventing infection with newer forms of the virus. “Deciding when and how best to update these vaccines, I think that’s really still the key conversation going forward here,” Dr. Bhattacharya said. Newer vaccines that use different approaches than the ones currently authorized in the United States may also work better for children. A protein-based vaccine made by Novavax is under review at the F.D.A., and the pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said this month that they plan to submit their vaccine for evaluation soon. Many parents want to vaccinate their children to prevent them from spreading the virus to vulnerable relatives, to keep them in school or to avoid the possibility of long Covid, the poorly understood set of lingering symptoms that can occur even after a mild infection. Experts acknowledged that the vaccine’s low effectiveness against infection does not ease those concerns. Still, the vaccines “provide more protection than we think,” said Jessica Andriesen, a vaccine data expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “They may also make it so that your kid who brings home Covid isn’t shedding virus as much as they would be if they weren’t vaccinated, and they also may have it for a shorter amount of time,” she said. The virus is here to stay, and children’s risk of severe outcomes increases with age. So inoculating children early is a good idea, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the F.D.A. “The argument I make to parents when I talk to them about this vaccine is, your children are going to grow up,” he said. “They’re going to need to be protected against this virus for years.” Sharon LaFraniere and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting. [Apoorva Mandavilli](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli) is a reporter for The New York Times, focusing on science and global health. She is the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. [Noah Weiland](https://www.nytimes.com/by/noah-weiland) covers the coronavirus pandemic as a health reporter in the Washington bureau. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Covid-19 in 2020. He grew up in East Lansing, Mich., and graduated from the University of Chicago. A version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2022, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Pfizer Vaccine Is Far Less Effective At Protecting Children Aged 5 to 11. 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