Kids under 5 can’t get Covid vaccines. Doctors explain how to protect

Covid hospitalizations are rising among children, and one age group is particularly vulnerable at the moment: kids under 5.

Infants to 4-year-olds are the only age group in the U.S. that isn’t eligible for vaccination, as the highly contagious omicron variant sweeps through communities.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said earlier this month there’s no indication omicron makes children sicker compared with past variants. The unprecedented levels of transmission across the nation, she said, is likely behind the increase in hospitalizations.

About 7 out of every 100,000 children under 5 were hospitalized with Covid as of Jan. 8, more than double the rate in December, according to CDC data from 250 hospitals across 14 states.

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that children are much less likely to develop severe disease from Covid compared with adults but that the risk is not zero.

“We have plenty of children, when you look at children’s hospitals throughout the country, who are severely ill with Covid-19 requiring hospitalization, some even dying,” Fauci said.

Dr. Roberta DeBiasi said most of the children admitted to Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., with Covid during the omicron wave have been under 5 years old.

“It is overwhelmingly the group that has not been vaccinated, which is the under 5 years of age,” said DeBiasi, who runs the infectious disease division at the hospital.

Dr. Andi Shane, infectious disease division chief at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, said many parents understandably feel a loss of control as the pandemic drags on with repeated waves of infection.

However, Shane said, parents should know that they are not powerless in the face of the virus and there are practical steps they can take to protect their kids. Though children under 5 can’t get the vaccines, parents can protect them by making sure every other eligible person in the family is fully vaccinated and gets a booster shot, according to doctors who spoke with CNBC. Everyone 12 and older is currently eligible for Pfizer and BioNTech‘s booster shot at least five months after their second dose.

People who are vaccinated and boosted have up to 75% protection against symptomatic infection from omicron, according to a real-world study from the U.K. Health Security Agency.

Guarding infants and toddlers from Covid is particularly challenging because so few tools are available to protect them, said Dr. Allison Bartlett, an infectious disease specialist at Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago. They are not eligible for the vaccine, the CDC advises strongly against putting masks on children under 2 years old, and the FDA has not authorized over-the-counter Covid tests for them.

“They’ve got three strikes against…