Parents vaccinated against Covid indirectly protect their children, reducing the possibility of contagion

We know that coronavirus vaccines are the most effective measure to stop contagion and that, eventually, the pandemic ends. Of course, for this to happen it is important that all people who can receive the vaccine do so.

A few months ago, for example, a study revealed that a father vaccinated against Covid reduced the risk of infection of his partner and cohabiting children by one percent. Now, a new study obtains a similar result again, concluding that parents vaccinated against Covid indirectly protect their children , further reducing the possibility of contagion.

The study

Published in the journal Science , the study carried out by researchers from Tel Aviv University and Harvard University analyzed two periods of the pandemic, in order to examine the indirect protection provided by parents vaccinated against Covid to their children .

In the first stage of the study, conducted between December 2020 and March 2021, the authors studied 440,733 children and adolescents from 155,305 families. Compared with children of parents who had not received any vaccine, children of parents with two doses of the vaccine showed strong indirect protection against the coronavirus.

The second stage took place between June and October 2021, when the Delta variant was active. After analyzing 181,307 unvaccinated children from 76,621 households, it was found that when one of their parents was vaccinated, the risk of contagion was reduced by 20.8%, while when both parents were vaccinated, it was reduced by up to 58.1%.

In both stages of the study, this indirect protection was found to be consistent in families of different sizes and in children of various age groups , including the smallest of the house, who to date are not yet eligible to be vaccinated :

“ Although the age range for vaccination is continually expanding, many children and adolescents remain unvaccinated for a variety of reasons. The current study shows that parental vaccination confers substantial protection on children living in the same household, emphasizing that vaccination not only protects the vaccinated individuals, but also their loved ones ,” explains Dr. Noam Barda, one of the study authors.

In summary, the research demonstrates the importance of vaccines by finding that they can also provide some protection to those who live in the same house , which can certainly give some peace of mind to parents of babies and young children, who, as we know, They are still waiting to receive the vaccine.