2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine associated with reduced hospitalizations, deaths
The COVID-19 vaccine had an effectiveness of 29.3% against related ED visits, 39.2% against hospitalization, and 64.0% against COVID-19-associated death, according to a comparison of U.S. veterans who got both COVID-19 and flu vaccines and those who got only flu shots.
The 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine was associated with reduced ED visits, hospitalizations, and deaths, according to a study of U.S. veterans.
Researchers studied Veterans Health Administration records to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine, comparing veterans who received the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines on the same day (164,132 participants) with veterans who received only a flu vaccine (131,839 participants) between Sept. 3 and Dec. 31, 2024. Participants were followed for 180 days or until the occurrence of any of the studied outcomes, whichever came first. Results were published Oct. 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
At six months of follow-up, the COVID-19 vaccine had an effectiveness of 29.3% (95% CI, 19.1% to 39.2%) against related ED visits, 39.2% (95% CI, 21.6% to 54.5%) against hospitalization, and 64.0% (95% CI, 23.0% to 85.8%) against COVID-19-associated death. The risk differences per 10,000 persons were 18.3 (95% CI, 10.8 to 27.6), 7.5 (95% CI, 3.4 to 13.0), and 2.2 (95% CI, 0.5 to 6.9), respectively. The COVID-19 vaccine was associated with decreased risks of the studied outcomes across prespecified subgroups defined according to age (<65 years, 65 to 75 years, and >75 years), the presence or absence of major coexisting conditions (including cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, or chronic lung disease), and among both immunocompetent and immunocompromised persons.
The researchers noted that public discussion increasingly questions the need for additional COVID-19 vaccination, since current variants cause milder illness and there is now more population immunity from previous infection and vaccination, but this study showed it to be effective against severe clinical outcomes.
“The results should be interpreted in the context of a person's risk of severe Covid-19 and the potential benefit of vaccination against the small but recognized risk of vaccine-related adverse events, including myocarditis,” the authors wrote.