WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A new study has found that the 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccine provides important protection against severe illness, lowering the chances of hospitalization and emergency or urgent care visits.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from more than 111,000 adults who visited 253 emergency and urgent care centers and 179 hospitals across seven U.S. states between September and December 2025. They compared people who tested positive for COVID-19 with those who tested negative and checked whether they had received the updated 2025-26 vaccine.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found that vaccinated adults were about 50% less likely to need emergency or urgent care treatment for COVID-19 and 55% less likely to be hospitalized compared with unvaccinated adults. Overall, the vaccine was estimated to be 50% effective at preventing COVID-related emergency and urgent care visits and 55% effective at preventing hospitalizations. Meanwhile, among adults aged 65 and older, the vaccine reduced the risk of emergency or urgent care visits by 48% and hospitalizations by 53%.
'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 wrote.
Although COVID-related hospitalizations were lower during the early part of the 2025-26 respiratory virus season than in previous years, serious illness from the virus continues to be a concern. An estimated 390,000 to 550,000 COVID-related hospitalizations occurred in the United States between October 2024 and September 2025, with adults aged 65 and older experiencing the highest hospitalization rates.
Notably, the research was originally expected to appear in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report earlier this year. However, according to CDC Chief Science Officer Althea Grant-Lenzy, acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya raised concerns about the study, delaying its publication. She said the authors were asked to address those concerns but were also free to submit the study to an outside journal, which they ultimately did.
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