Lead Author: Harris, et al.
Original date of publication: 06/01/2021
Link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2107717?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed
Summary Context
This is a commentary, non-peer reviewed, to the NEJM which was used mid-2021 to justify utility of the covid-19 vaccination program by claiming transmission decreases. The authors don’t’ define cases other than a positive test result, do any follow up, check for symptoms, or note the way the diagnostic tests were used. They quite remarkably do not mention that the manufacturers of the injections never claimed in written form that these products would reduce transmission.
Comments
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Household transmission studies are very difficult and expensive, and this is an example of the non-rigorous research that replaced those difficult projects, and heralded as informative in the early years of the covid crisis. This is a non-peer reviewed correspondence in the NEJM by a group in the UK, often cited to justify early expansion of vaccination program, even before 2nd shot. Typically for research in this period, the definition of a “case” beyond positive test was not shared. The specifications of the PCR used was not shared (VERY important for positivity rates). No symptoms were checked, or follow up performed, nor viral load assessed in any patients. These likely prohibited it becoming a peer-reviewed study, but “correspondences” are often accepted by major journals if they merely conform to the mainstream narrative.
Abstract or Results, Key Passages
This is a correspondence so no abstract: Selected summary: “Overall, the likelihood of household transmission was approximately 40 to 50% lower in households of index patients who had been vaccinated 21 days or more before testing positive than in households of unvaccinated index patients; the findings were similar for the two vaccines. Most of the vaccinated index patients in our data set (93%) had received only the first dose of vaccine.”
Keywords: covid vaccineHousehold transmissioninfection
Full Author List: Ross J. Harris, Ph.D., Jennifer A. Hall, Ph.D., University College London Institute for Women’s Health, London, United Kingdom, Asad Zaidi, M.Sc., Nick J. Andrews, Ph.D., J. Kevin Dunbar, M.B., Ch.B., Gavin Dabrera, M.B., B.S., F.F.P.H., Public Health England, London, United Kingdom
