Effectiveness of the Pre-Omicron COVID-19 Vaccines Against Omicron in Reducing Infection, Hospitalization, Severity, and Mortality Compared to Delta and Other Variants: A Systematic Review

Overview

Journal Hum Vaccin Immunother

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2023 Mar 14

PMID 36915960

Authors

Pradipta Paul

Ahmed El-Naas

Omar Hamad

Mohammad A Salameh

Nada Mhaimeed

Ibrahim Laswi

Ali A Abdelati

Jamal Alanni

Bushra Khanjar

Dana Al-Ali

Krishnadev V Pillai

Abdallah Elshafeey

Hasan Alroobi

Zain Burney

Omar Mhaimeed

Mohammad Bhatti

Pratyaksha Sinha

Muna Almasri

Ahmed Aly

Khalifa Bshesh

Reem Chamseddine

Omar Khalil

Ashton Dsouza

Thanu Shree

Narjis Mhaimeed

Lina Yagan

Dalia Zakaria

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Despite widespread mass rollout programs, the rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant called into question the effectiveness of the existing vaccines against infection, hospitalization, severity, and mortality compared to previous variants. This systematic review summarizes and compares the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, with respect to the above outcomes in adults, children, and adolescents. A comprehensive literature search was undertaken on several databases. Only 51 studies met our inclusion criteria, revealing that the protection from primary vaccination against Omicron infection is inferior to protection against Delta and Alpha infections and wanes faster over time. However, mRNA vaccine boosters were reported to reestablish effectiveness, although to a lower extent against Omicron. Nonetheless, primary vaccination was shown to preserve strong protection against Omicron-associated hospitalization, severity, and death, even months after last dose. However, boosters provide more robust and longer-lasting protection against hospitalizations due to Omicron as compared to only primary series.

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