Effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines on preventing symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections and hospitalizations in Southwestern Alaska, January–December 2021
Vaccine·
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.04.070
- PMID
- 37150620
- PMCID
- PMC10150184
- OpenAlex
- W4367597845
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
Within this rural Alaska health-system setting, the reported estimates indicate substantial protection against hospitalization and higher estimated protection against symptomatic infection after a booster dose than after the primary series during the final study period.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The study assessed how well a primary COVID-19 vaccine series and a booster dose prevented symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, and estimated vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization, among residents of southwestern Alaska during 2021.
Study design
The investigators analyzed regional health system data covering January 16 through December 3, 2021, and estimated vaccine effectiveness across specified periods and outcomes.
Population and setting
The setting was rural southwestern Alaska. The symptomatic-infection estimates specifically included adult residents, while the hospitalization estimate was reported for the overall study population.
Main findings
Estimated effectiveness of the primary series against symptomatic infection among adults was 91.3% early in 2021, 50.3% during July 17 to September 24, and 37.0% during September 25 to December 3. During the latter period, the booster estimate was 92.1%; across the full study period, estimated effectiveness against hospitalization was 91.9%.
Public-health relevance
Within this rural Alaska health-system setting, the reported estimates indicate substantial protection against hospitalization and higher estimated protection against symptomatic infection after a booster dose than after the primary series during the final study period.
Important limitations
The supplied abstract does not state the study's methodological limitations or provide enough detail to assess potential sources of bias, population representativeness, or analytic assumptions. This summary is therefore limited to the supplied single-article abstract and metadata and requires the original paper for decision-grade interpretation.
GIDS interpretation
The article is discoverable as evidence concerning COVID-19 vaccination and vaccine effectiveness in a rural southwestern Alaska setting, with relevance to symptomatic infection and hospitalization outcomes. It provides study-specific context only and does not establish or confirm any current surveillance signal.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 10 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.