Vaccinating adolescents against SARS-CoV-2 in England: a risk-benefit analysis

Deepti Gurdasani, Samir Bhatt, Anthony Costello, Spiros C Denaxas, Seth Flaxman, Trisha Greenhalgh, Stephen Griffin, Zoë Hyde, Aris Katzourakis, Martin McKee, Susan Michie, Oliver Ratmann, Stephen Reicher, Gabriel Scally, Christopher Tomlinson, Kit Yates, Hisham Ziauddeen, Christina Pagel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Objective: To offer a quantitative risk–benefit analysis of two doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among adolescents in England. Setting: England. Design: Following the risk–benefit analysis methodology carried out by the US Centers for Disease Control, we calculated historical rates of hospital admission, Intensive Care Unit admission and death for ascertained SARS-CoV-2 cases in children aged 12–17 in England. We then used these rates alongside a range of estimates for incidence of long COVID, vaccine efficacy and vaccine-induced myocarditis, to estimate hospital and Intensive Care Unit admissions, deaths and cases of long COVID over a period of 16 weeks under assumptions of high and low case incidence. Participants: All 12–17 year olds with a record of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in England between 1 July 2020 and 31 March 2021 using national linked electronic health records, accessed through the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre. Main outcome measures: Hospitalisations, Intensive Care Unit admissions, deaths and cases of long COVID averted by vaccinating all 12–17 year olds in England over a 16-week period under different estimates of future case incidence. Results: At high future case incidence of 1000/100,000 population/week over 16 weeks, vaccination could avert 4430 hospital admissions and 36 deaths over 16 weeks. At the low incidence of 50/100,000/week, vaccination could avert 70 hospital admissions and two deaths over 16 weeks. The benefit of vaccination in terms of hospitalisations in adolescents outweighs risks unless case rates are sustainably very low (below 30/100,000 teenagers/week). Benefit of vaccination exists at any case rate for the outcomes of death and long COVID, since neither have been associated with vaccination to date. Conclusions: Given the current (as at 15 September 2021) high case rates (680/100,000 population/week in 10–19 year olds) in England, our findings support vaccination of adolescents against SARS-CoV2.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)513-524
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM)
Volume114
Issue number11
Early online date1 Nov 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Royal Society of Medicine.

Keywords

  • Clinical
  • evidence-based practice
  • non-clinical
  • paediatrics
  • public health
  • vaccination programmes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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