Younger Americans benefited less from COVID booster shots than older people

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday night published new data on the risks of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 among people who are unvaccinated and vaccinated, with or without booster doses.

The agency recommends booster shots for Americans 12 and older. This is the first comprehensive data on the effectiveness of boosters by age in the United States.

The figures confirm that booster doses are most beneficial to older adults, as the CDC has previously reported. But the new numbers for younger Americans were less compelling. In those age groups, vaccination itself — two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — decreased the risk of hospitalization and death so sharply that a booster shot did not seem to add much benefit.