Journal Article

Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines administered in the 2023 autumnal campaigns in Europe: Results from the VEBIS primary care test-negative design study, September 2023–January 2024

Latorre-Margalef, Neus, Rodrigues, Ana Paula, Kaczmarek, Marlena, Dijkstra, Frederika, Mlinarić, Ivan, Lazăr, Mihaela, Laniece Delaunay, Charlotte, Martínez-Baz, Iván, Túri, Gergő, Rameix-Welti, Marie-Anne, Borges, Vitor, Samuelsson Hagey, Tove, Goerlitz, Luise, Pérez-Gimeno, Gloria, Meijer, Adam, Bennett, Charlene, Castilla, Jesús, Oroszi, Beatrix, Hooiveld, Mariëtte, Dürrwald, Ralf, O’Donnell, Joan, Guiomar, Raquel, Bacci, Sabrina, Kissling, Esther, Maurel, Marine, Sève, Noémie, Melo, Aryse, Kurečić Filipović, Sanja, Ramos Marín, Violeta, Mazagatos, Clara

2024

Overview

In autumn 2023, European vaccination campaigns predominantly administered XBB.1.5 vaccine. In a European multicentre study, we estimated 2023 COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) against laboratory-confirmed symptomatic infection at primary care level between September 2023 and January 2024. Using a test-negative case–control design, we estimated VE in the target group for COVID-19 vaccination overall and by time since vaccination. We included 1057 cases and 4397 controls. Vaccine effectiveness was 40 % (95 % CI: 26–53 %) overall, 48 % (95 % CI: 31–61 %) among those vaccinated < 6 weeks of onset and 29 % (95 % CI: 3–49 %) at 6–14 weeks. Our results suggest that COVID-19 vaccines administered to target groups during the autumn 2023 campaigns showed clinically significant effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed, medically attended symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in the 3 months following vaccination. A longer study period will allow for further variant-specific COVID-19 VE estimates, better understanding decline in VE and informing booster administration policies.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier Limited,Elsevier,Elsevier Science
• Subject: Adolescent / Adult / Adults / Age / Aged / Allergy and Immunology / Animal biology / Autumn / Biochemistry, Molecular Biology / Cardiovascular disease / Case-Control Studies / Chronic illnesses / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - epidemiology / COVID-19 - prevention & control / COVID-19 infection / COVID-19 vaccines / COVID-19 Vaccines - administration & dosage / COVID-19 Vaccines - immunology / decline / Diabetes / Effectiveness / Europe / Europe - epidemiology / Family physicians / Female / Humans / Immune system / Immunization Programs / Immunology / Influenza / Life Sciences / Lung diseases / Male / Middle Aged / Multicentre study / Older people / Patients / Primary care / Primary Health Care / Regression analysis / SARS-CoV-2 / SARS-CoV-2 - immunology / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Short Communication / Target groups / Test-negative design / vaccination / Vaccination - methods / Vaccination - statistics & numerical data / Vaccine effectiveness / Vaccine Efficacy / Vaccines / Viruses / Young Adult