Infection rates in children 17 and under skyrocketed from December through February, according to blood sample tests.
More than half of people in the United States had antibodies for COVID-19 by the end of February, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.were hit especially hard by the omicron variant through the winter, with antibodies detected in three-quarters of the largely unvaccinated population.
In the study, the CDC examined blood samples taken from all age groups, testing for specific antibodies that develop only after COVID-19 infection. “This study was only looking at the presence of antibodies from prior infection and did not detect antibodies from prior vaccination or boosting,” Dr. Kristie Clarke, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC focused on pediatric health, said at a briefing Tuesday. Clarke is the lead author of the new report.
No age group was spared from the omicron variant, which started barreling across the country in December; detection of antibodies rose in all groups, the report found. Overall, antibodies in the general population rose from 33.5 percent in December to 57.7 percent in February.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC’s director, said this should not be interpreted to mean that antibodies from prior infection equal adequate protection against future illness.
“We don’t know whether that protection has waned. We don’t know as much about that level of protection than we do about the protection we get from both vaccines and boosters,” Walensky said, adding that the agency still encourages those with detectable antibodies from prior infection to get vaccinated.