Waning COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness for BNT162b2 and CoronaVac in Malaysia: An Observational Study

  1. Jing Lian Suah
  2. Masliyana Husin
  3. Peter Seah Keng Tok
  4. Boon Hwa Tng
  5. Thevesh Thevananthan
  6. Ee Vien Low
  7. Maheshwara Rao Appannan
  8. Faizah Muhamad Zin
  9. Shahanizan Mohd Zin
  10. Hazlina Yahaya
  11. Kalaiarasu M. Peariasamy
  12. Sheamini Sivasampu

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.1016/j.ijid.2022.03.028
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.01.15.22269326: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsField Sample Permit: RECoVaM study and Ethical Consideration: This study, commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Malaysia, is part of The Real-World Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccines under the Malaysia National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (RECoVaM) study registered in the National Medical Research Register (NMRR-21-1660-60697).
    IRB: This study was conducted according to guidelines in the Declaration of Helsinki and was granted ethnical approval by the Medical Research and Ethics Committee (MREC), Ministry of Health, Malaysia.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All analyses were conducted with Python, version 3.9, and R, version 4.1.2.
    Python
    suggested: (IPython, RRID:SCR_001658)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your code and data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    However, our study is not without limitations. First, in the absence of a national testing strategy during the study period (September 2021), the capturing of COVID-19 infections may not be standardised nationally, although testing remained high. Second, the lack of adequate genomic surveillance in Malaysia rendered impossible to ascertain variant-specific vaccine effectiveness, and their variation, if any, over time. Our study period also preceded the detection of the Omicron variant of concern. Moving forward, we recommend that the monitoring of vaccine effectiveness over time remains prioritised to guide policy decisions on the rollout of booster dose(s). To build on our study findings, monitoring of effectiveness for other vaccine platforms used in Malaysia and among adolescents, which were first offered the COVID-19 vaccines in September 2021, should be initiated. Genomic surveillance efforts should also be strengthened to enable investigation into variant-specific vaccine effectiveness. Finally, as booster doses are rolled out, the performance and safety of the booster doses should be assessed to furnish data needs for policy calibration. In several studies conducted elsewhere, early findings on booster doses have been encouraging.29,30

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2022.01.15.22269326v1 on medRxiv