Study suggests 2025-26 COVID vaccine cuts emergency, urgent care visits by half
The study, published today in JAMA Network Open,
found that adults who received the updated vaccine were about 50% less likely
to require ED/UC treatment for COVID and 55% less likely to be hospitalized
than those who did not receive the vaccine.
Booster augments previous immunity
For the study, researchers led by a team from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from more than 111,000
adults across 253 EU/UCs and 179 hospitals in seven states from September
through December 2025. They compared patients who tested positive for COVID
with those who tested negative and identified whether they had received the
2025-26 vaccine.
Overall, vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-related
ED/UC visits was estimated at 50%. Protection against hospitalization was 55%.
Among adults ages 65 and older, VE was 48% against ED/UC visits and 53% against hospitalization. Older adults face the highest risk of severe outcomes from COVID.
While hospitalization rates during the first part of the
2025-26 respiratory virus season were lower than in previous years,
COVID-related severe illness remains a significant issue. There were an
estimated 390,000 to 550,000 COVID-related hospitalizations in the United
States from October 2024 to September 2025, with the highest hospitalization
rate reported among adults 65 and older.
The protective benefits of the 2025-26 booster bolstered
previous immunity. “The findings in this study demonstrate the added benefit of
2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccination irrespective of protection conferred by previous
COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the authors write.
59% lower risk of medically attended illness
The findings align with a separate study conducted in
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain by the Vaccine Effectiveness, Burden
and Impact Studies (VEBIS) Primary Care Vaccine Effectiveness Group.
For the study, published
last week in JAMA Network Open, researchers examined the
effectiveness of 2025-26 COVID vaccines in older adults who sought care for
respiratory illnesses from September 2025 to January 2026.
The findings suggest that vaccination reduced the risk of
symptomatic COVID infection that required a healthcare visit by 59%, although
with uncertainty (95% confidence interval [CI], 14% to 83%), among older adults
during the first two months after vaccination.
Protection waned slightly over time—VE was 64% (95% CI, 8%
to 89%) 14 to 41 days after vaccination and 52% (95% CI, −39% to 89%) 42 to 83
days after vaccination, again with uncertainty.
Vaccine uptake low in both studies
In both studies, vaccine uptake was low. In the study led by
the CDC, only 11% of patients included in the analysis received a 2025-26
booster, and only 6% of patients who tested positive for COVID in the European
study had been vaccinated, compared with 19% of those who tested
negative.
“The low uptake of vaccines, which showed substantial
short-term effectiveness, suggests missed opportunities for preventing
symptomatic COVID-19 among unvaccinated vulnerable groups,” write the authors
of the European study.
