March 29, 2021

Single Dose of a MRNA SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Is Associated with Lower Nasopharyngeal Viral Load among Nursing Home Residents with Asymptomatic COVID-19

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Transmission

Keywords (Tags): transmission, vaccine

• Among nursing home residents in Pennsylvania with asymptomatic COVID-19 diagnosed through twice-weekly surveillance testing (n=10), residents who received a single dose of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine had significantly lower nasopharyngeal viral load (-2.4 mean log10 lower) than unvaccinated residents. The authors note their results suggest a single dose may start to reduce transmission among nursing home residents.

McEllistrem et al. (Mar 26, 2021). Single Dose of a MRNA SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Is Associated with Lower Nasopharyngeal Viral Load among Nursing Home Residents with Asymptomatic COVID-19. Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab263