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Comment by SSilver2k2 | Hacker News Reader

I have an under 5 year old offspring that isn't eligible to get the shot yet. Once he gets them this year I will definitely be breathing easier.

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Fortunately the CDC data shows that the risk to young children is very low. Probably less than other common viruses like RSV.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burd...

https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2021/han00443.asp

If it's any consolation it's doing the rounds in my 7-year-old's class and none of them have had much worse than feeling a bit achy with a bit of a temperature. They've all had much worse from the usual bugs that do the rounds at school. Of course this is anecdata, and most people have family or friends who are vulnerable and need to be protected, but if it's just about your child then it's very unlikely to be a problem if they have no underlying conditions.

Are these kids vaccinated? One of the challenges we have now is making sure to make sure to correct for that since vaccination's protection against severe outcomes has been quite durable even in the face of Omicron's improved evasion.

>vaccination's protection against severe outcomes has been quite durable even in the face of Omicron's improved evasion.

Very interested if you have a source for this claim, as I have been looking for one.

The data is still incomplete since hospitalization is a lagging indicator but here's some data from the UK earlier today. See Table 2:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

44% reduction after 6 months is not great but that's still significantly better than under 20% for preventing symptomatic cases which you have for a 2 dose vaccinated person facing Omicron half a year later.

Thanks. I had seen this data but forgot about it. Appreciate you finding it. Definitely nice to see some protection against severe outcomes remains even if prevention of infection isn't quite as there as we'd like.

However I am not sure if we had started this pandemic with Omicron and a 44% effective vaccine, that we would have put all our eggs in one basket the way we have to date. Hindsight is 20/20, of course.

No, none of them are vaccinated.

>If it's any consolation it's doing the rounds in my 7-year-old's class and none of them have had much worse than feeling a bit achy with a bit of a temperature. They've all had much worse from the usual bugs that do the rounds at school. Of course this is anecdata

You aren't crazy. Here's some actual data from the CDC: a child is at least 25 times less likely to be covid hospitalized than an adult under age 50, and 74 times less likely than an someone over age 50. Important caveat that this data is pre-omicron. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm

>most people have family or friends who are vulnerable and need to be protected

Couldn't agree more.

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