Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/9XfhDAQtQP8   The early reports from NY State show that the Pfizer vaccine works better and longer for teens than for the elementary school crew.  The NY State Public Health Department in collaboration with the University of Albany now report the vaccine efficiencies for 852,384 fully vaccinated adolescents 12-17 years and 365,502 children 5-11 years during the 6 weeks from mid-December, 2021 to the end of January, 2022 during the rise of the Omicron variant.   For the teens, the vaccine prevented cases in 66% and hospitalization in 85%.  For the younger kids, the vax efficiencies were 68% for infection and 100% for hospitalization.  Over the 6 week observation period, the Pfizer vaccine effectiveness in teens declined 23% for infections and 14% for hospitalization.  The vaccine’s effectiveness for the younger children declined significantly more than for the teens: 82% for infections and 52% for hospitalization.   The vaccine clearly works, but teens and younger children will req