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. 2022 Jan 21;375(6578):331-336.
doi: 10.1126/science.abm0620. Epub 2021 Nov 4.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccine protection and deaths among US veterans during 2021

Barbara A Cohn #  1 , Piera M Cirillo #  1   2 , Caitlin C Murphy #  3 , Nickilou Y Krigbaum  1   2 , Arthur W Wallace  2   4
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 vaccine protection and deaths among US veterans during 2021

Barbara A Cohn et al. Science. .

Abstract

We report severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine effectiveness against infection (VE-I) and death (VE-D) by vaccine type in 780,225 veterans in the Veterans Health Administration, covering 2.7% of the US population. From February to October 2021, VE-I declined for all vaccine types, and the decline was greatest for the Janssen vaccine, resulting in a VE-I of 13.1%. Although breakthrough infection increased risk of death, vaccination remained protective against death in persons who became infected during the Delta variant surge. From July to October 2021, VE-D for age <65 years was 73.0% for Janssen, 81.5% for Moderna, and 84.3% for Pfizer-BioNTech; VE-D for age ≥65 years was 52.2% for Janssen, 75.5% for Moderna, and 70.1% for Pfizer-BioNTech. Findings support continued efforts to increase vaccination, booster campaigns, and multiple additional layers of protection against infection.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Time-dependent vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection as estimated from Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for age, race, ethnicity, sex, and comorbidity score.
Vaccine effectiveness presented as (1 – hazard ratio × 100) and 95% CIs. Effectiveness for each month was estimated from contrasts by using product terms for vaccination status by time to most recent RT-PCR assay.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Kaplan-Meier curves illustrating cumulative risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, by vaccination status and age.
(A) All ages. (B) Age <50 years. (C) Age 50 to 64 years. (D) Age ≥65 years. The survival function estimates time to infection detected by most recent RT-PCR assay.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. Kaplan-Meier curves illustrating cumulative risk of death due to any cause, by vaccination status and RT-PCR assay.
(A) Age <65 years. (B) Age ≥65 years. (C) Charlson Comorbidity Index score <3. (D) Charlson Comorbidity Index score ≥3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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