Trio of articles suggest that a single dose of vaccine, even if less effective than two doses, may have greater population benefit.
Three articles published today in Annals of Internal Medicine discuss the most effective vaccination strategy for maximum impact against the COVID-19 pandemic. The articles are accompanied by an editorial from Thomas J. Bollyky, JD, Director of Global Health Program, Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Bollyky can be reached through Lauran Potter at lpotter@cfr.org . The full text of his editorial is available here: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-8280 .
Speed Versus Efficacy: Quantifying Potential Tradeoffs in COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-7866 .
Researchers from Yale School of Public Health used a previously published model of a COVID-19 vaccination program to quantify the speed-versus-efficacy tradeoff of vaccination deployment. The model accounted for transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), COVID-19 disease severity, and recovery or vaccination leading to protective immunity. According to the authors' analysis, a 2-dose vaccination strategy would impose steep clinical and epidemiologic costs in the context of ongoing pandemic response. Depending on the duration of protection conferred, a single-dose vaccine with 55% effectiveness may confer greater population benefit than a 95%-effective vaccine requiring two doses.
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link above to read the full text. The lead corresponding author, A. David Paltiel, PhD, can be reached through Michael Greenwood at michael.greenwood@yale.edu .
A Public Health COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy to Maximize the Health Gains for Every Single Vaccine Dose: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-8060 .
Authors from the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center suggest that speed is essential for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and offer four rationale supporting their conclusion:
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link above to read the full text. The lead corresponding author, Ruanne V Barnabas, MBChB, MSc, DPhil, can be reached through Susan Gregg at sghanson@uw.edu .
Alternative Dose Allocation Strategies to Increase Benefits From Constrained COVID-19 Vaccine Supply: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-8137 .
Researchers from Stanford University developed a decision analytic cohort model to estimate direct benefits of vaccination against COVID-19 under alternative strategies for dose allocation. First, they analyzed a fixed strategy based on the current U.S. model of two doses, timed about one month apart. Second, they analyzed a flexible strategy that would reserve 10% of the supply for second doses during the first 3 weeks, 90% during each of the next 3 weeks, and 50% thereafter. They estimate that the flexible strategy would result in an additional 23% - 29% of COVID-19 cases averted compared with the fixed strategy. In both scenarios, 24 million people received at least one dose of the vaccine by week 8, whereas 2.4 million additional people received two doses of vaccine in the flexible strategy because million more received an initial dose during the first 3 weeks. According to the researchers, these findings suggest that vaccinating more people as soon as possible using a flexible approach could increase the benefits of vaccines while enabling most recipients to receive second doses on schedule.
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link above to read the full text. The lead corresponding author, Joshua A. Salomon, PhD, can be reached through Lisa Kim at LiKim@stanfordhealthcare.org .
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Annals of Internal Medicine