Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

March 31, 2021

Initial Report of Decreased SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load after Inoculation with the BNT162b2 Vaccine

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  • In a real-world analysis of data from individuals in Israel who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination (n=4,938), viral load was substantially lower (2.8 to 4.5-fold lower) for infections occurring 12-37 days after the first dose compared to individuals who had not been vaccinated. Cycle of threshold (Ct) values for the E gene, RdRp gene, N gene and the internal control were determined for each positive test. The authors suggest that reduced viral loads may affect viral shedding, contagiousness, and disease severity.

Levine-Tiefenbrun et al. (Mar 29, 2021). Initial Report of Decreased SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load after Inoculation with the BNT162b2 Vaccine. Nature Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01316-7