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

Charlotte Laniece Delaunay (1) , Aryse Melo (2) , Marine Maurel (1) , Clara Mazagatos (3, 4) , Luise Goerlitz (5) , Joan O Donnell (6) , Beatrix Oroszi (7) , Noémie Sève (8) , Ana Paula Rodrigues (2) , Iván Martínez-Baz (9, 3) , Adam Meijer (10) , Ivan Mlinarić (11) , Neus Latorre-Margalef (12) , Mihaela Lazăr (13) , Gloria Pérez-Gimeno (3, 4) , Ralf Dürrwald (5) , Charlene Bennett (14) , Gergő Túri (7) , Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti (15, 16, 17, 18) , Raquel Guiomar (2) , Jesús Castilla (9, 3) , Mariëtte Hooiveld (19) , Sanja Kurečić Filipović (11) , Tove Samuelsson Hagey (12) , Frederika Dijkstra (10) , Vitor Borges (2) , Violeta Ramos Marín (20) , Sabrina Bacci (21) , Marlena Kaczmarek (21) , Esther Kissling (1)

1 EpiConcept [Paris]
2 INSA - Instituto Nacional de Saùde Dr Ricardo Jorge [Portugal]
3 CIBERESP - Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública = Consortium for Biomedical Research of Epidemiology and Public Health
4 Institute of Health Carlos III
5 RKI - Robert Koch Institute [Berlin]
6 HPSC - Health Protection Surveillance Centre [Dublin, Ireland]
7 Semmelweis University [Budapest]
8 iPLESP - Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique
9 IdiSNA - Navarra Institute for Health Research / Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Navarra
10 RIVM - National Institute for Public Health and the Environment [Bilthoven]
11 CIPH - Croatian Institute of Public Health [Zagreb]
12 Public Health Agency of Sweden
13 Cantacuzino National Medico-Military Institute for Research Development = Institutul Național de Cercetare Dezvoltare Medico-Militară "Cantacuzino" [Bucharest, Romania]
14 UCD - University College Dublin [Dublin]
15 2I - Infection et inflammation
16 CNR - laboratoire associé - Centre National de Référence des virus respiratoires (dont la grippe et le SARS-CoV2) [Paris]
17 Université Paris-Saclay
18 AP-HP - Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP)
19 NIVEL - Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research [Utrecht]
20 Consejeria de sanidad y servicios sociales [Ceuta, Spain]
21 ECDC - European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control [Stockholm, Sweden]

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.

Mots clés: COVID-19; Europe; Multicentre study; SARS-CoV-2; Test-negative design; Vaccine effectiveness

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Biologie animale; Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire; Immunologie

Charlotte Laniece Delaunay, Aryse Melo, Marine Maurel, Clara Mazagatos, Luise Goerlitz, et al.. 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. Vaccine, 2024, 42 (19), pp.3931-3937. ⟨10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.05.067⟩. ⟨hal-04608441⟩