Vaccine effectiveness against COVID‐19 among symptomatic persons aged ≥12 years with reported contact with COVID‐19 cases, February–September 2021

• Published in: Influenza and other respiratory viruses Vol. 16; no. 4; pp. 673 - 679
• Main Authors: Chung, Jessie R., Kim, Sara S., Belongia, Edward A., McLean, Huong Q., King, Jennifer P., Nowalk, Mary Patricia, Zimmerman, Richard K., Moehling Geffel, Krissy, Martin, Emily T., Monto, Arnold S., Lamerato, Lois E., Gaglani, Manjusha, Hoffman, Eric, Volz, Marcus, Jackson, Michael L., Jackson, Lisa A., Patel, Manish M., Flannery, Brendan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.07.2022; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Age groups; Confidence intervals; Contact; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 Vaccines; Disease control; Ethnicity; Health care; Hispanic people; Human subjects; Humans; Illnesses; Immunization; Infections; Influenza; Medical laboratories; mRNA vaccines; Original; Respiratory diseases; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Statistical analysis; Vaccination; vaccine effectiveness; Vaccine Efficacy; Vaccines; Viruses; United States > US; COVID-19; vaccine effectiveness; SARS-CoV-2
• ISSN: 1750-2640; 1750-2659; 1750-2659
• DOI: 10.1111/irv.12973

Background Individuals in contact with persons with COVID‐19 are at high risk of developing COVID‐19; protection offered by COVID‐19 vaccines in the context of known exposure is poorly understood. Methods Symptomatic outpatients aged ≥12 years reporting acute onset of COVID‐19‐like illness and tested for SARS‐CoV‐2 between February 1 and September 30, 2021 were enrolled. Participants were stratified by self‐report of having known contact with a COVID‐19 case in the 14 days prior to illness onset. Vaccine effectiveness was evaluated using the test‐negative study design and multivariable logistic regression. Results Among 2229 participants, 283/451 (63%) of those reporting contact and 331/1778 (19%) without known contact tested SARS‐CoV‐2‐positive. Adjusted vaccine effectiveness was 71% (95% confidence interval [CI], 49%–83%) among fully vaccinated participants reporting a known contact versus 80% (95% CI, 72%–86%) among those with no known contact (p‐value for interaction = 0.2). Conclusions This study contributes to growing evidence of the benefits of vaccinations in preventing COVID‐19 and support vaccination recommendations and the importance of efforts to increase vaccination coverage.