Impacts of rapid mass vaccination against SARS-CoV2 in an early variant of concern hotspot

Jörg Paetzold; Janine Kimpel; Katie Bates; Michael Hummer; Florian Krammer; Dorothee von Laer; Hannes Winner

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28233-8

Impacts of rapid mass vaccination against SARS-CoV2 in an early variant of concern hotspot

Jörg Paetzold, Janine Kimpel, Katie Bates, Michael Hummer, Florian Krammer, Dorothee von Laer, Hannes Winner

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Abstract

We study the real-life effect of an unprecedented rapid mass vaccination campaign. Following a large outbreak of the Beta variant in the district of Schwaz/Austria, 100,000 doses of BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech) were procured to mass vaccinate the entire adult population of the district between the 11th and 16th of March 2021. This made the district the first widely inoculated region in Europe. We examine the effect of this campaign on the number of infections, cases of variants of concern, hospital and ICU admissions. We compare Schwaz with (i) a control group of highly similar districts, and (ii) with populations residing in municipalities along the border of Schwaz which were just excluded from the campaign. We find large and significant decreases for all outcomes after the campaign. Our results suggest that rapid mass vaccination is an effective tool to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Original language	English
Article number	612
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28233-8
State	Published - Dec 2022

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title = "Impacts of rapid mass vaccination against SARS-CoV2 in an early variant of concern hotspot",

abstract = "We study the real-life effect of an unprecedented rapid mass vaccination campaign. Following a large outbreak of the Beta variant in the district of Schwaz/Austria, 100,000 doses of BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech) were procured to mass vaccinate the entire adult population of the district between the 11th and 16th of March 2021. This made the district the first widely inoculated region in Europe. We examine the effect of this campaign on the number of infections, cases of variants of concern, hospital and ICU admissions. We compare Schwaz with (i) a control group of highly similar districts, and (ii) with populations residing in municipalities along the border of Schwaz which were just excluded from the campaign. We find large and significant decreases for all outcomes after the campaign. Our results suggest that rapid mass vaccination is an effective tool to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2.",

author = "J{\"o}rg Paetzold and Janine Kimpel and Katie Bates and Michael Hummer and Florian Krammer and {von Laer}, Dorothee and Hannes Winner",

note = "Funding Information: The authors are grateful to Daniela Schmid and Lukas Richter from AGES for providing SARS-CoV-2 qPCR data and critical discussion. We also would like to thank Elmar Rizzoli and Thomas Geiler from Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung for providing sequencing and vaccination data for the state of Tyrol. We also thank the G{\"O}G for data assistance. We are grateful for seeing the support of Katie Bates through the FWF Austrian Science Fund Lise Meitner Award [M-3069-B]. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

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AU - von Laer, Dorothee

AU - Winner, Hannes

N1 - Funding Information: The authors are grateful to Daniela Schmid and Lukas Richter from AGES for providing SARS-CoV-2 qPCR data and critical discussion. We also would like to thank Elmar Rizzoli and Thomas Geiler from Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung for providing sequencing and vaccination data for the state of Tyrol. We also thank the GÖG for data assistance. We are grateful for seeing the support of Katie Bates through the FWF Austrian Science Fund Lise Meitner Award [M-3069-B]. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

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Impacts of rapid mass vaccination against SARS-CoV2 in an early variant of concern hotspot

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