April 26, 2021

First Dose of BNT162b2 MRNA Vaccine in a Health Care Worker Cohort Is Associated with Reduced Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Vaccines and Immunity

Keywords (Tags): vaccination

• Among healthcare workers at a hospital in the UK, increased coverage (8.3% to 82.5%) of at least one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination was associated with significant reductions in symptomatic and asymptomatic cases of SARS-CoV-2. There was a significant negative correlation between cumulative vaccination and PCR positive cases (R = -0.91), along with a marked negative correlation between symptomatic PCR testing rates and vaccine coverage (R = -0.90). The number of staff self-isolating due to SARS-CoV-2 dropped from 325 on January 11th to 91 by February 23rd (72% decrease). The proportion of positive tests from asymptomatic screening was maintained over the study period. 

Lillie et al. (Apr 24, 2021). First Dose of BNT162b2 MRNA Vaccine in a Health Care Worker Cohort Is Associated with Reduced Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab351