Study shows vaccinated parents provide some protection for unvaccinated kids

A new study shows vaccinated parents provided some protection for their unvaccinated children during the alpha and delta coronavirus waves. 

The Israeli study looked at two time periods in 2021, with the first being during the alpha wave of the COVID-19 pandemic from January to March and the second during the delta wave from July to September.

The study found that during both waves, having fully vaccinated parents or fully vaccinated parents with a booster shot significantly decreased the chance of an unvaccinated child contracting the virus.

During the alpha wave, unvaccinated children in a household with two fully vaccinated parents were found to have a 71.7 percent lower risk of getting the coronavirus, when compared with unvaccinated children in households with unvaccinated parents. Little variation was found from different household sizes or age ranges. In comparison, when only one parent was vaccinated, the risk of unvaccinated children in the household contracting COVID-19 only decreased by 26 percent. 

During the delta wave, the study found that unvaccinated children with two parents who were fully vaccinated and had the booster shot had a 58.1 percent lower risk of infection when compared with unvaccinated children in households with parents who had been fully vaccinated at least five months prior but not gotten the booster shot. In households with only one vaccinated and boosted parent, meanwhile, the risk only decreased by 20.8 percent.

The data comes after almost 1 million children were infected with the coronavirus in the U.S. in the week ending on Jan. 13. 

The study did not mention the omicron variant, which has become the dominant strain of the virus in countries around the world and has been found to be more infectious than previous COVID-19 variants.

The earlier period in the study included 400,733 unvaccinated children and adolescents with a median age of 6 from 155,305 households. The later period included 181,307 unvaccinated children with a median age of 5 from 76,621 distinct households.