Vaccinating adults appears to protect children as well

06 Apr 2021
Global Health

New data from Israel, where health officials moved quickly to distribute the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, suggests that the vaccination of adults also protects unvaccinated people living around them.

Roughly a third of Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS) 1.95 million members above the age of 16 had received at least a single vaccine dose by Jan. 30. MHS is Israel’s second-largest healthcare maintenance organization. In analyzing outcomes in 223 communities, researchers found as the number of vaccinated adults went up, infection rates among unvaccinated members of the same community decreased, particularly among children.