Overview
- Children who received the updated 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine had a 76% lower risk of emergency or urgent-care visits at ages 9 months to 4 years and a 56% lower risk at ages 5 to 17.
- The analysis drew on roughly 98,000 pediatric encounters from late August 2024 through early September 2025 across about 250 emergency departments and urgent care centers.
- Researchers compared children who received the 2024–2025 update with those who did not and found added protection even with prior vaccination or infection in the population.
- CDC guidance for ages 6 months to 17 years now relies on shared clinical decision-making following an overhaul of ACIP reported to have replaced members with appointees of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics continues to explicitly recommend COVID-19 vaccination for young children, diverging from the CDC’s current approach.