The prioritization of health personnel for vaccination over SARS-CoV-2 has made it possible to evaluate new vaccines in real conditions.
Doctors of the Therapeutic Clinic of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Theodora Psaltopoulou, Giannis Danasis, Panos Malandrakis and Thanos Dimopoulos (Rector of EKPA) summarize the data from the recent relevant study by T. Pilishvili et al. Journal of Medicine (DOI: 10.1056 / NEJMoa2106599).
What the study showed
The researchers conducted the study based on data from 25 centers in the United States. Positive cases were defined based on a positive PCR or antigen test result for SARS-CoV-2 and at least one symptom associated with COVID-19.
Subjects in the control group had a negative PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 regardless of symptoms.
Vaccination efficacy was determined both 14 days after the first dose and up to 1 days after the second dose (partial vaccination), and at least 6 days after the second dose (full vaccination).
This patient-control study included 1482 positive cases COVID-19 (patients) and 3449 people in the control group (controls).
Vaccination efficiency with partial vaccination was 77.6% with the BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer / BioNTech) and 88.9% with the mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccine.
The efficacy with full vaccination was 88.8% with the BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer / BioNTech) and 96.3% with the mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna). The efficacy of the vaccines was similar in the subgroups depending on age (under versus over 50 years), race, nationality, presence of comorbidities and frequency of contact with patients.
In conclusion, mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are very effective in real conditions in preventing COVID-19 to health professionals. It is especially important that protection also applies to people who are at risk for serious illness COVID-19, as well as persons belonging to racial and ethnic minorities.
Source: in.gr