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Master of Public Health

Effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccines for Preventing Covid-19 Hospitalizations in the United States

AUTHORS

Tenforde MW , Patel MM , Ginde AA , Douin DJ , Talbot HK , Casey JD , Mohr NM , Zepeski A , Gaglani M , McNeal T , Ghamande S , Shapiro NI , Gibbs KW , Files DC , Hager DN , Shehu A , Prekker ME , Erickson HL , Exline MC , Gong MN , Mohamed A , Henning DJ , Steingrub JS , Peltan ID , Brown SM , Martin ET , Monto AS , Khan A , Hough CT , Busse L , Ten Lohuis CC , Duggal A , Wilson JG , Gordon AJ , Qadir N , Chang SY , Mallow C , Gershengorn HB , Babcock HM , Kwon JH , Halasa N , Chappell JD , Lauring AS , Grijalva CG , Rice TW , Jones ID , Stubblefield WB , Baughman A , Womack KN , Lindsell CJ , Hart KW , Zhu Y , Olson SM , Stephenson M , Schrag SJ , Kobayashi M , Verani JR , Self WH , , . medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences. 2021 7 8; ().

ABSTRACT

Background: As SARS-CoV-2 vaccination coverage increases in the United States (US), there is a need to understand the real-world effectiveness against severe Covid-19 and among people at increased risk for poor outcomes.

Methods: In a multicenter case-control analysis of US adults hospitalized March 11 – May 5, 2021, we evaluated vaccine effectiveness to prevent Covid-19 hospitalizations by comparing odds of prior vaccination with an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) between cases hospitalized with Covid-19 and hospital-based controls who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2.

Results: Among 1210 participants, median age was 58 years, 22.8% were Black, 13.8% were Hispanic, and 20.6% had immunosuppression. SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 was most common variant (59.7% of sequenced viruses). Full vaccination (receipt of two vaccine doses ≥14 days before illness onset) had been received by 45/590 (7.6%) cases and 215/620 (34.7%) controls. Overall vaccine effectiveness was 86.9% (95% CI: 80.4 to 91.2%). Vaccine effectiveness was similar for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, and highest in adults aged 18-49 years (97.3%; 95% CI: 78.9 to 99.7%). Among 45 patients with vaccine-breakthrough Covid hospitalizations, 44 (97.8%) were ≥50 years old and 20 (44.4%) had immunosuppression. Vaccine effectiveness was lower among patients with immunosuppression (59.2%; 95% CI: 11.9 to 81.1%) than without immunosuppression (91.3%; 95% CI: 85.5 to 94.7%).

Conclusion: During March-May 2021, SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines were highly effective for preventing Covid-19 hospitalizations among US adults. SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was beneficial for patients with immunosuppression, but effectiveness was lower in the immunosuppressed population.

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