Effectiveness of Inactivated and mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Against SARS-CoV-2 Infection, Severe Disease and Mortality in the Geriatric Population

Abstract

Older age (>60 years) has been identified as the main risk factor for COVID-19. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Pfizer–BioNTech and CoronaVac vaccines against COVID-19 infection, serious illness, and mortality in the geriatric population. We found that 2 doses of CoronaVac vaccine were ineffective in protecting against COVID-19 infection in people over 65 years of age, while the vaccine efficacy (VE) of the mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 was 80% (95% CI 70–87). The VE of full vaccination with BioNTech was 89% (95% CI 53–97) against hospitalization, 79% (95% CI 0–97) against death, and 79% (95% CI 0–97) against intensive care unit (ICU) admission. However, the VE of full vaccination with CoronaVac was 50% (95% CI 33–63) against hospitalization, 53% (95% CI 26–70) against ICU admission, and 56% (95% CI 30–73) against death. In conclusion, we found that the mRNA vaccine has higher efficacy against severe COVID-19 infection and mortality in the geriatric population than the inactivated vaccine. Booster doses of vaccines should be considered in increasing the effectiveness of inactivated vaccines. Given the potential of SARS-CoV-2 mutations evading vaccination protection and the risk of reduced immunity over time, regular monitoring of vaccine effectiveness in the real world is critical. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00284-023-03322-z.

Effect of terminal phosphate groups on collisional dissociation of RNA oligonucleotide anions

“…In the recent Covid-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccines provided vital protection to more than five billion people. 3 Functional diversity of RNA molecules is accompanied by diversity in length, sequence, and modification. The length of mRNAs varies from hundreds to tens of thousands of nucleotides (nt), whereas that of miRNAs lies in a narrow range of 19~25 nt, or 22 nt on average.…”

“…In the recent Covid-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccines provided vital protection to more than five billion people. 3…”