January 15, 2024

expert reaction to under vaccination and severe COVID-19 outcomes

A study published in The Lancet looks at under vaccination and severed COVID-19 outcomes. 

Dr Andrew Freedman, Reader in Infectious Diseases, Consultant in Infectious Diseases & Vaccine Clinical Trials, Cardiff University School of Medicine, said:

“This study clearly demonstrates how effective COVID vaccines were in reducing the risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 infection at that time.  It also highlights the high rates of under vaccination, defined as one or more fewer doses than recommended, with quite striking differences between the four UK nations.”

“As the authors point out, these findings will help identify which groups should in future be specifically targeted to maximise uptake of vaccines for COVID and other infections.  This will be particularly crucial in the event of another pandemic.”

“One of the strengths of this study is the inclusion of data on the whole UK population – a remarkable achievement and one which will have applications in many other areas of health policy.”

‘Under vaccination and severe COVID-19 outcomes: meta-analysis of national cohort studies in England,’ by Aziz et al. was published in The Lancet name at 23:30 UK time on Monday 15th January 2024. 

DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02467-4

Declared interests

Dr Andrew Freedman: “I have no COIs to declare”

For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.