Effectiveness of primary series, first, and second booster vaccination of monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections and severe diseases during the SARS-CoV-2 omicron BA.5 epidemic in Japan: vaccine effectiveness real-time surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 (VERSUS)
Haruka Maeda, Nobuo Saito, Ataru Igarashi, Masayuki Ishida, M Terada, Shingo Masuda, Ryosuke Osawa, Naoto Hosokawa, Kei Nakashima, Hiroshi Kamura, Haruki Imura, Hiroki Inoue, Suguru Matsuzaka, Yukihiro Sugimoto, Osamu Kuwamitsu, Iori Motohashi, Toru Morikawa, Rentaro Oda, Yuiko Hoshina, Takashi Matono, Osamu Teshigahara, Eiichiro Sando, Sadaharu Asami, Satoshi Kudo, Noboru Akizuki, Yoshikazu Muto, Tomoichiro Hayakawa, Tomoo Kishaba, Yasuji Ohara, Yoshinao Kubo, Motoi Suzuki, Konosuke Morimoto
Abstract
Background This study aimed to evaluate VE of primary, first, and second booster ancestral-strain monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccination against symptomatic infections and severe diseases in Japan.Methods We conducted a test-negative case-control study. We included medically attended episodes and hospitalizations involving individuals aged ≥16 with signs and symptoms from July to November 2022, when Omicron BA.5 was dominant nationwide. To evaluate VE, we calculated adjusted ORs of vaccination among test-positive versus test-negative individuals using a mixed-effects logistic regression.Results For VE against symptomatic infections among individuals aged 16 to 59, VE of primary vaccination at >180 days was 26.1% (95% CI: 10.6–38.8%); VE of the first booster was 58.5% (48.4–66.7%) at ≤90 days, decreasing to 41.1% (29.5–50.8%) at 91 to 180 days. For individuals aged ≥60, VE of the first booster was 42.8% (1.7–66.7%) at ≤90 days, dropping to 15.4% (-25.9–43.2%) at 91 to 180 days, and then increasing to 44.0% (16.4–62.5%) after the second booster. For VE against severe diseases, VE of the first and second booster was 77.3% (61.2–86.7%) at ≤90 days and 55.9% (23.4–74.6%) afterward.Conclusion mRNA Booster vaccination provided moderate protection against symptomatic infections and high-level protection against severe diseases during the BA.5 epidemic in Japan.