iScience
Volume 26, Issue 5, 19 May 2023, 106733
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Article
Randomized clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines: Do adenovirus-vector vaccines have beneficial non-specific effects?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106733Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • It is unknown if COVID-19 vaccines have non-specific effects on overall survival

  • The randomized trials of mRNA and adenovirus vaccines had information on deaths

  • The relative mortality risk for mRNA vaccine vs. placebo was 1.03 (0.63–1.71)

  • For adenovirus vaccine vs. placebo, it was significantly different: 0.37 (0.19–0.70)

Summary

We examined the possible non-specific effects of novel mRNA- and adenovirus-vector COVID-19 vaccines by reviewing the randomized control trials (RCTs) of mRNA and adenovirus-vector COVID-19 vaccines. We calculated mortality risk ratios (RRs) for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines vs. placebo recipients and compared them with the RR for adenovirus-vector COVID-19 vaccine recipients vs. controls. The RR for overall mortality of mRNA vaccines vs. placebo was 1.03 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.63–1.71). In the adenovirus-vector vaccine RCTs, the RR for overall mortality was 0.37 (0.19–0.70). The two vaccine types differed significantly with respect to impact on overall mortality (p = 0.015). The RCTs of COVID-19 vaccines were unblinded rapidly, and controls were vaccinated. The results may therefore not be representative of the long-term effects. However, the data argue for performing RCTs of mRNA and adenovirus-vector vaccines head-to-head comparing long-term effects on overall mortality.

Subject areas

Microbiology
Virology

Data and code availability

This paper does not use original data or original code. Any additional information required to reanalyze the data reported in this paper is available from the lead contact upon request.

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