Interim Estimates of Vaccine Effectiveness of BNT162b2 and MRNA-1273 COVID-19 Vaccines in Preventing SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Health Care Personnel, First Responders, and Other Essential and Frontline Workers — Eight U.S. Locations, December 2020–March 2021

Details

• Personal Author:
  Thompson, Mark G. ; Burgess, Jefferey L. ; Naleway, Allison L. ; Tyner, Harmony L. ; Yoon, Sarang K. ; Meece, Jennifer ; Olsho, Lauren E. W. ; Caban-Martinez, Alberto J. ; Fowlkes, Ashley ; Lutrick, Karen ; Kuntz, Jennifer L. ; Dunnigan, Kayan ; Odean, Marilyn J. ; Hegmann, Kurt T. ; Stefanski, Elisha ; Edwards, Laura J. ; Schaefer-Solle, Natasha ; Grant, Lauren ; Ellingson, Katherine ; Groom, Holly C. ; Zunie, Tnelda ; Thiese, Matthew S. ; Ivacic, Lynn ; Wesley, Meredith G. ; Lamberte, Julie Mayo ; Sun, Xiaoxiao ; Smith, Michael E. ; Phillips, Andrew L. ; Groover, Kimberly D. ; Yoo, Young M. ; Gerald, Joe ; Brown, Rachel T. ; Herring, Meghan K. ; Joseph, Gregory ; Beitel, Shawn ; Morrill, Tyler C. ; Mak, Josephine ; Rivers, Patrick ; Harris, Katherine M. ; Hunt, Danielle R. ; Arvay, Melissa L. ; Kutty, Preeta ; Fry, Alicia M. ; Gaglani, Manjusha
• Corporate Authors:
  CDC COVID-19 Response Team. ; University of Arizona. College of Public Health. ; Center for Health Research (Kaiser-Permanente Medical Care Program. Northwest Region) ; St. Luke’s (Duluth, Minnesota) ; University of Utah. ; Marshfield Clinic. Research Laboratory. ; Abt Associates. ; Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. ; Baylor Scott & White Health. ; Whiteside Institute for Clinical Research. ; Texas A&M University. College of Medicine.
• Description:
  What is already known about this topic? Messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be effective in preventing symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in randomized placebo-controlled Phase III trials.
  
  What is added by this report? Prospective cohorts of 3,950 health care personnel, first responders, and other essential and frontline workers completed weekly SARS-CoV-2 tTesting for 13 consecutive weeks. Under real-world conditions, mRNA vaccine effectiveness of full immunization (≥14 days after second dose) was 90% against SARS-CoV-2 infections regardless of symptom status; vaccine effectiveness of partial immunization (≥14 days after first dose but before second dose) was 80%.
  
  What are the implications for public health practice? Authorized mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are effective for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection in real-world conditions. COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all eligible persons.
  
  Messenger RNA (mRNA) BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in randomized placebo-controlled Phase III trials (1,2); however, the benefits of these vaccines for preventing asymptomatic and symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 (the Virus that causes COVID-19) infection, particularly when administered in real-world conditions, is less well understood. Using prospective cohorts of health care personnel, first responders, and other essential and frontline workers* in eight U.S. locations during December 14, 2020–March 13, 2021, CDC routinely tested for SARS-CoV-2 infections every week regardless of symptom status and at the onset of symptoms consistent with COVID-19–associated illness. Among 3,950 participants with no previous laboratory documentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, 2,479 (62.8%) received both recommended mRNA doses and 477 (12.1%) received only one dose of mRNA vaccine.† Among unvaccinated participants, 1.38 SARS-CoV-2 infections were confirmed by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) per 1,000 person-days.§ In contrast, among fully immunized (≥14 days after second dose) persons, 0.04 infections per 1,000 person-days were reported, and among partially immunized (≥14 days after first dose and before second dose) persons, 0.19 infections per 1,000 person-days were reported. Estimated mRNA vaccine effectiveness for Prevention of infection, adjusted for study site, was 90% for full immunization and 80% for partial immunization. These findings indicate that authorized mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are effective for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection, regardless of symptom status, among working-age adults in real-world conditions. COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all eligible persons.
  
  Suggested citation for this article: Thompson MG, Burgess JL, Naleway AL, et al. Interim Estimates of Vaccine Effectiveness of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 Vaccines in Preventing SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Health Care Personnel, First Responders, and Other Essential and Frontline Workers — Eight U.S. Locations, December 2020–March 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 29 March 2021.
  
  mm7013e3.htm?s_cid=mm7013e3_w
  
  mm7013e3-H.pdf
  
  
• Subjects:
  CoronaVirus Infections/Prevention & Control COVID-19 Vaccines COVID-19/Immunology COVID-19/Prevention & Control Immunogenicity, Vaccine RNA, Messenger RNA, Viral SARS-CoV-2/ Genetics Vaccines, Synthetic Viral Vaccines
• Source:
  MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2021; v. 70 Early Release
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  6 pdf pages
• Volume:
  70
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:89aa87ee03ff0037daa5ce60585c31cf0f5256ff17283051587847e502377eb939f737985942f22d87480a262df97141a11f1bbcd88e0d0faecf4fe6707a5051
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/104585/cdc_104585_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 139.37 KB ]