“As a pediatrician and parent, I would absolutely recommend that children be vaccinated, even if they have been infected,” said Dr. Clark.
Coronavirus cases are on the rise again in the United States, especially in the northeast, but so far the increase in hospitalizations has been minimal and deaths are still declining.
Even among those hospitalized, “we see less oxygen use, less in the intensive care unit and, fortunately, we haven’t seen an increase in related deaths,” said the CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Valensky. “We hope that the positive trends will continue.”
CDC researchers began assessing human antibody levels in 10 places at the start of the pandemic and have since expanded their efforts to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Researchers use a sufficiently sensitive test to identify previously infected people at least a year or two after exposure.
The researchers analyzed blood samples collected from September 2021 to February 2022, looking for antibodies against the virus; they then analyze data by age, gender and geographical location. The researchers looked for a specific type of antibody that is produced after an infection, but not in people who have simply been vaccinated.
Between September 2021 and December 2021, the prevalence of antibodies in the samples increased steadily by one to two percentage points every four weeks. But it jumped sharply after December, increasing by nearly 25 points by February 2022.
The percentage of antibody samples increased to about 75 percent from about 45 percent in both children 11 years of age and younger and adolescents 12 to 17 years of age.
By February 2022, approximately 64 percent of adults aged 18 to 49, about half of those aged 50 to 64, and about a third of adults were exposed to the virus, according to the study.
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