Kids and teens still need COVID vaccines despite the widespread assumption that previous infection provides lasting protection. A recent study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases found that children and teenagers who are reinfected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus are twice as likely to develop long COVID compared to those infected only once. The study analyzed the electronic health records of over 465,000 young people under 21 treated at 40 children’s hospitals across the United States between January 2022 and October 2023.
The rate of long COVID among children and adolescents who were reinfected was nearly 1,900 per million after two infections. By comparison, the rate of long COVID was less than half that, at 904 per million, among those kids who had had just one infection. The data suggests that the risk of developing long COVID doubles after a second infection, a finding that contradicts the common narrative that COVID becomes milder with each exposure.
Children reinfected with COVID faced significantly higher odds of severe complications. For instance, children infected with COVID a second time were over three and a half times more likely to develop myocarditis, a potentially life-threatening condition. They were nearly three times more likely to experience changes in taste and smell, over two times more likely to develop blood clots, and nearly twice as likely to suffer from heart disease or kidney damage. Many of these children had no prior chronic health conditions.
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“Your body has a memory system and is really going to be hurt from recurrent infection,” said Yong Chen, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Ravi Jhaveri, a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and co-author of the study, added that the results support one of the strongest reasons for getting vaccinated.
Why vaccination matters
About three-quarters of the children in the study were unvaccinated, a statistic that reflects the timing of the research. While the study did not specifically measure how vaccines affect long COVID, previous research has shown that vaccination significantly lowers the risk of severe illness and long-term complications. Vaccination is the most effective tool to reduce infections and lower the risks of long COVID.
It’s tempting to think that once a child has had COVID, they are protected from another round of serious illness, but this assumption is risky. The evidence shows that catching COVID again may make children more vulnerable to lingering and serious health problems. Misinformation has circulated the idea that healthy kids don’t need COVID shots, but the evidence says otherwise. Simply put: Getting COVID once does not grant immunity or protect your child from future infections.
