Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Epublish 14 citations
PubMed: 36630477 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004156
Effectiveness of mRNA boosters after homologous primary series with BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 against symptomatic infection and severe COVID-19 in Brazil and Scotland: A test-negative design case-control study.
PLoS Med 20(1):e1004156
Authors: Thiago Cerqueira-Silva, Syed Ahmar Shah, Chris Robertson, Mauro Sanchez, Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi, Vinicius de Araujo Oliveira, Enny S Paixão, Igor Rudan, Juracy Bertoldo Junior, Gerson O Penna, Neil Pearce, Guilherme Loureiro Werneck, Mauricio L Barreto, Viviane S Boaventura, Aziz Sheikh, Manoel Barral-Netto
Affiliations
- LIB and LEITV Laboratories, Instituto Gonçalo Moniz, Fiocruz, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
- Universidade Federal de Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
- Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
- Public Health Scotland, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
- Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil.
- MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
- Center for Data Integration and Knowledge for Health (Cidacs), Instituto Gonçalo Moniz, Fiocruz, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
- Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Brazil and Scotland have used mRNA boosters in their respective populations since September 2021, with Omicron's emergence accelerating their booster program. Despite this, both countries have reported substantial recent increases in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. The duration of the protection conferred by the booster dose against symptomatic Omicron cases and severe outcomes is unclear.
METHODS AND FINDINGS
Using a test-negative design, we analyzed national databases to estimate the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of a primary series (with ChAdOx1 or BNT162b2) plus an mRNA vaccine booster (with BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273) against symptomatic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes (hospitalization or death) during the period of Omicron dominance in Brazil and Scotland compared to unvaccinated individuals. Additional analyses included stratification by age group (18 to 49, 50 to 64, ≥65). All individuals aged 18 years or older who reported acute respiratory illness symptoms and tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection between January 1, 2022, and April 23, 2022, in Brazil and Scotland were eligible for the study. At 14 to 29 days after the mRNA booster, the VE against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection of ChAdOx1 plus BNT162b2 booster was 51.6%, (95% confidence interval (CI): [51.0, 52.2], p < 0.001) in Brazil and 67.1% (95% CI [65.5, 68.5], p < 0.001) in Scotland. At ≥4 months, protection against symptomatic infection waned to 4.2% (95% CI [0.7, 7.6], p = 0.02) in Brazil and 37.4% (95% CI [33.8, 40.9], p < 0.001) in Scotland. VE against severe outcomes in Brazil was 93.5% (95% CI [93.0, 94.0], p < 0.001) at 14 to 29 days post-booster, decreasing to 82.3% (95% CI [79.7, 84.7], p < 0.001) and 98.3% (95% CI [87.3, 99.8], p < 0.001) to 77.8% (95% CI [51.4, 89.9], p < 0.001) in Scotland for the same periods. Similar results were obtained with the primary series of BNT162b2 plus homologous booster. Potential limitations of this study were that we assumed that all cases included in the analysis were due to the Omicron variant based on the period of dominance and the limited follow-up time since the booster dose.
CONCLUSIONS
We observed that mRNA boosters after a primary vaccination course with either mRNA or viral-vector vaccines provided modest, short-lived protection against symptomatic infection with Omicron but substantial and more sustained protection against severe COVID-19 outcomes for at least 3 months.
MeSH
Sars-Cov-2, Vaccines, Case-Control Studies, Rna, Messenger, Covid-19, Infections
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- The impact of COVID-19 on pulmonary, neurological, and cardiac outcomes: evidence from a Mendelian randomization study. Front Public Health, 2024
- SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Indigenous Pataxó community of Southern Bahia, Brazil: second wave of transmission and vaccine effects. Cad Saude Publica, 2025
- Protection of homologous and heterologous boosters after primary schemes of rAd26-rAd5, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BBIBP-CorV during the omicron outbreak in adults of 50 years and older in Argentina: a test-negative case-control study. Lancet Reg Health Am, 2023
- Bias in control selection associated with the use of rapid tests in influenza vaccine effectiveness studies. medRxiv, 2024
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