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Mass vaccination is the most important strategy to terminate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Reports suggest the potential risk of the development of new-onset or relapse of minimal change disease (MCD) following COVID-19 vaccination; however, details on vaccine-associated MCD remain unclear. A 43-year-old man with MCD, who had been in remission for 29 years, developed nephrotic syndrome 4 days after receiving the third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. His kidney biopsy revealed relapsing MCD. Intravenous methylprednisolone pulse therapy followed by oral prednisolone therapy was administered, and his proteinuria resolved within 3 weeks. This report highlights the importance of careful monitoring of proteinuria after COVID-19 vaccination in patients with MCD, even if the disease is stable and no adverse events occurred during previous vaccinations. Our case report and literature review of COVID-19 vaccine-associated MCD indicated that MCD relapse tends to occur later after vaccination and slightly more often following the second and subsequent vaccine doses than new-onset MCD.
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ObjectiveTo investigate the specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody in adults and above after initial vaccination with inactivated COVID-19 vaccine, and determine the influencing factors. MethodsIn this study, residents aged 18 and above who had completed two doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine in Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province were included. Information such as gender, age, type of vaccine and vaccination time were collected, and serum specimens were sampled. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) antibody was quantitatively examined by enzyma-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and influencing factors were determined. ResultsThe median concentration of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody in the residents vaccinated with an inactivated booster vaccine was higher than that in those vaccinated with only two doses of COVID-19 vaccine or single dose (P<0.05). The median concentration of IgG antibody in males was 9.73 (4.01-23.70) RUmL-1, lower than 17.76 (7.07-49.23) RUmL-1 in females (P<0.05). The median concentration in the residents vaccinated with BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm) was 6.53 (0.97-13.69) RUmL-1, which was lower than that in those vaccinated with CoronaVac (Sinovac) that was 17.29 (8.54-43.73) RUmL-1 (P<0.05). The median concentration in those with BBIBP-CorV was also lower than 12 (5.45-40.06) RUmL-1 in those with heterologous booster vaccine (P<0.05). The median concentration was 9.73 (3.83-23.63) RUmL-1 in the residents with an interval of more than 6 months from the second dose, which was lower than 14.66 (6.36-35.98) RUmL-1 in those with an interval of 3-6 months (P<0.05). Moreover, immune effect was better in females (X2=16.464, P<0.05), 18-45 years (X2=7.158, P<0.05), and those vaccinated with CornaVac (X2=49.637, P<0.05), while decreased in those with an interval of more than 6 months from the second dose (X2=8.447, P<0.05). ConclusionGender, age, and type of vaccine may affect the effect of immunization. The COVID-19 vaccination shows an acceptable immunogenicity in adults;however, it declines in 6 months after vaccination. It warrants strengthening the booster vaccination to maintain the immune response.
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Background: Solid organ transplant recipients exhibit decreased antibody responses, mainly due to their weakened immune systems. However, data are limited on antibody responses after the primary series of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines among recipients of various solid organ transplant types. Thus, we compared the antibody responses after three COVID-19 vaccine doses between liver transplant (LT) and kidney transplant (KT) recipients. Methods: We prospectively enrolled solid organ transplant recipients who received three COVID-19 vaccine doses from June 2021 to February 2022 and measured S1-specific immunoglobulin G antibodies using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Seventy-six LT and 17 KT recipients were included in the final analysis. KT recipients showed consistently lower antibody responses even after the third vaccine dose (86.2% vs. 52.9%, P=0.008) and lower antibody titers (median, 423.0 IU/mL [interquartile range, 99.6-2,057 IU/mL] vs. 19.7 IU/mL [interquartile range, 6.9-339.4 IU/mL]; P=0.006) than were observed in LT recipients. Mycophenolic acid was a significant risk factor for a seropositive antibody response after the third vaccine dose in the multivariable analysis (odds ratio, 0.06; 95% confidence interval, 0.00-0.39; P=0.02). Conclusions: We found a weaker antibody response despite the completion of the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines in KT recipients than in LT recipients. Mycophenolic acid use in KT recipients might be the main contributor to this observation.
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Background: The long-term humoral immune response after vaccination varies between vaccines and is dependent on the accuracy of the antibody test. A better understanding of the vaccine immune response may help to define vaccination strategies against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Objective: To investigate the long-term immunological response to CoronaVac vaccine and determinants of breakthrough COVID-19 infection. Methods: A long-term, prospective cohort study involving vaccinated adult and elderly subjects was conducted to investigate the presence of anti-RBD-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)G, anti-nucleocapsid IgG and anti-spike trimeric protein IgG. Antibody level dynamics and risk factors associated with breakthrough COVID-19 infection were investigated. Results: In total, 3902 participants were included in this study. Vaccination with two doses of CoronaVac and a booster dose increased the levels of anti-RBD-specific IgG, anti-nucleocapsid IgG and anti-spike trimeric IgG significantly. In adults, anti-nucleocapsid IgG and anti-spike trimeric IgG levels decreased significantly 7 months after the second dose. In adults and the elderly, the levels of anti-spike trimeric IgG and anti-RBD IgG decreased significantly 4 and 6 months after the booster dose, respectively. Previous exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and anti-spike trimeric IgG titres was independently associated with a lower probability of post-vaccination infection. Conclusions: A significant increase in antibody levels was found after two doses of CoronaVac and a booster dose. Antibody titres declined significantly 7 months post-vaccination in participants who did not receive a booster dose. Higher levels of antibodies and previous SARS-CoV-2 infection were associated with protection against breakthrough COVID-19.
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Vaccinating children against Covid raised a debate, due to generally mild clinical presentation. The decision to vaccinate teenagers was motivated by the global public health need: to decrease transmission to other age groups. Among adolescents, the efficacy (better immunity than in young adults) and safety of vaccines was clearly demonstrated. Among 5-to-12-year-olds, due to lower contamination the collective benefit is less clear, and when the m-RNA vaccines were available for this age group, the Omicron variant was predominant and their effect on non-severe infections and transmission had yet to be determined. Individual benefit is based both on somatic criteria and on the child's schooling and mental health. Children under 5 years of age received a 3 micro g dose of vaccine, which is one tenth of the adult dose, resulting in immunogenicity similar to that of 16-to-25-year-olds.
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Objective: To analyze the nucleic acid shedding time of Omicron variant of novel coronavirus in the elderly patients with non-severe infection, and to explore the related factors affecting the nucleic acid shedding time. Methods: A total of 104 elderly patients with non-severe COVID-19 were divided into early negative group (<10 days) and late negative group ( 10 d) by the nucleic acid shedding time. The population information, vaccination, previous diseases, blood biochemical and inflammatory indicators, nucleic acid ORFIab gene and N gene Ct values were collected and compared between the two groups. The Spearman rank correlation and multiple linear regression were conducted to explore the influencing factors of the nucleic acid shedding time. Results: The mean time of nucleic acid shedding of Omicron variant in the early negative group was 7.26: 1.54 d, compared with 12.96: 2.44 d in the late negative group. There were significant differences in age, the ratio of chronic heart failure, chronic pulmonary disease and booster vaccination for COVID-19 and the first nucleic acid Ct value between the two groups (P < 0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that the nucleic acid shedding time of Omicron was positively correlated with age, chronic heart failure and serum level of procalcitonin, but negatively correlated with the vaccination booster and the first tested nucleic acid Ct value. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, vaccination booster and the first tested nucleic acid Ct value were the independent influencing factors of the nucleic acid shedding time. Conclusions: Age, vaccination booster for COVID-19 and the first tested nucleic acid Ct value were the independent influencing factors of nucleic acid shedding in [the elderly non-severe patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron. Vaccination booster for COVID-19 in the elderly vulnerable groups can shorten the time of nucleic acid shedding.
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The IgG antibody titer against SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding protein (RBD) after mRNA vaccine were compared between those with and without previous infection (PI) for up to 48 weeks. Though sustained higher IgG-RBD were observed in the PI group after two doses of vaccines, both groups benefited from the booster shots of the third vaccine. This data supports the necessity of the booster shots to those with PI.
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Objective: This study aimed to categorize and analyze the public response toward third/booster shots of COVID-19 on Twitter. Methods: We downloaded the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots related Tweets using the Twitter API. The collected Tweets were pre-processed to prepare them for analysis by (1) removing non-English language tweets, retweets, emojis, emoticons, non-printable characters, the punctuation marks, and the prepositions, (2) anonymizing the identity of the users, and (3) normalizing various forms of the same words. We used the state-of-the-art BertTopic modeling library to identify the most popular topics. Results: Of 165,048 Tweets collected, 36,908 Tweets were analyzed in this study. From these tweets, we identified 9 topics, which were about Biden administration, Pfizer & BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, eligibility for booster shots, side effects, Donald Trump, variants of the Novel Coronavirus, and conspiracy theory & propaganda. The mean of sentiment was positive in all topics. The lowest and highest mean of sentiments were for the Donald Trump topic (0.0097) and the Johnson & Johnson topic (0.1294), respectively. Conclusions: The topics identified in this study not only accurately reflect the contemporary COVID-19 discussion, but also the high degree of politicization in the USA. While the latter might be a result of our rejection of non-English tweets, it is reassuring to see our fully automated, unsupervised pipeline reliably extract such global features in the data at scale. We, therefore, believe that the methodology presented in this study is mature and useful for other infoveillance studies on a wide variety of topics. © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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China's recent termination of strict COVID-19 control necessitates taking a booster vaccine shot as a precaution against the pandemic as quickly as possible. A large body of research has examined people's attitudes toward and intentions for the booster shot. However, most studies failed to explore how China's sociopolitical context has shaped their attitude regarding the booster jab take-up. The current study utilizes data from a national survey adopting quota sampling to analyze the Chinese public's medical and non-medical considerations to determine their intention for the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The study found that thanks to China's initial successful lockdown policies, personal risk and benefit perceptions did not dominate their views regarding booster vaccination. Instead, respondents' gender, nationalism, endorsement of the zero-COVID policy, self-efficacy regarding vaccination, and perceived infection severity were the major factors underlying their booster shot intention. The situation highlights how the politicized context of China's COVID-19 control has impacted people's plans to practice preventive behaviors. It is necessary to offset the negative consequences. One strategy is to educate the Chinese public with more medically relevant information to help them make rational choices regarding vaccination and other protective measures. On the other hand, such education can utilize this nationalistic mental status to enhance the persuasion effect.
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We aimed to investigate the hesitancy and willingness of parents to vaccinate themselves and their children with a booster dose against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and related factors. We conducted a cross-sectional study in Puyang city, China. The information was collected, including demographic characteristics, willingness to receive a booster dose of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine, and attitudes and concerns toward COVID-19 and vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy was assessed in individuals completing the first two doses and booster eligible, while vaccine willingness was assessed in those completing the first two doses and not yet booster eligible. Among the participants completing two primary doses while not meeting the booster criteria, 95.4% (1465/1536) and 95.0% (1385/1458) had a willingness to a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine for themselves and their children, respectively. Among the participants who met the booster criteria, 40.3% had vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy and unwillingness tended to occur in people who were younger, less educated, less healthy, and with unsureness of vaccines' efficacy and adverse events (AE). The younger age of children, children in poorer health, and concern about the efficacy and AE of vaccines contributed to the participants' unwillingness to vaccinate their children. We observed a high willingness to the booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine both for the parents and their children, regardless of the eligibility to a booster dose. However, 40% of people had delayed vaccination behaviors. The promotion of scientific knowledge of vaccines' effectiveness and safety is needed, especially for people in poor health and parents with young children. Timely disclosure of AE caused by COVID-19 vaccines and proper aiding offered to people encountering AE are suggested.
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Objective: This study aimed to categorize and analyze the public response toward third/booster shots of COVID-19 on Twitter. Methods: We downloaded the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots related Tweets using the Twitter API. The collected Tweets were pre-processed to prepare them for analysis by (1) removing non-English language tweets, retweets, emojis, emoticons, non-printable characters, the punctuation marks, and the prepositions, (2) anonymizing the identity of the users, and (3) normalizing various forms of the same words. We used the state-of-the-art BertTopic modeling library to identify the most popular topics. Results: Of 165,048 Tweets collected, 36,908 Tweets were analyzed in this study. From these tweets, we identified 9 topics, which were about Biden administration, Pfizer & BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, eligibility for booster shots, side effects, Donald Trump, variants of the Novel Coronavirus, and conspiracy theory & propaganda. The mean of sentiment was positive in all topics. The lowest and highest mean of sentiments were for the Donald Trump topic (0.0097) and the Johnson & Johnson topic (0.1294), respectively. Conclusions: The topics identified in this study not only accurately reflect the contemporary COVID-19 discussion, but also the high degree of politicization in the USA. While the latter might be a result of our rejection of non-English tweets, it is reassuring to see our fully automated, unsupervised pipeline reliably extract such global features in the data at scale. We, therefore, believe that the methodology presented in this study is mature and useful for other infoveillance studies on a wide variety of topics.
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Background: The risk of fatal infection and death from Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exposure increases in the elderly and those with coexisting illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and hypertension. The COVID-19 vaccine's efficacy and safety have been supported by numerous research. However, data from the Ministry of Health of Indonesia revealed that the elderly in North Jakarta had a reclining interest in receiving a booster dose. This research aimed to assess the perception of the elderly living in North Jakarta related to supporting and inhibiting factors in accepting the COVID-19 booster vaccination. Methods: This qualitative research used a grounded theory design. It was conducted from March to May 2022, and data were gathered in North Jakarta's numerous districts through in-depth interviews until saturation was reached. Furthermore, data were validated using member checking, source triangulation to families of elderly, and vaccination doctors. They were processed to produce transcripts, codes, and finalized themes. Results: Booster vaccination in the elderly was supported by 12 out of 15 informants, and the rest did not agree. The supporting factors include health, family, peer support, doctors, government, administrative requirements, endemic transformation, booster choice, and media coverage. Meanwhile, the inhibiting factors include hoaxes, concerns over the vaccine's safety and efficacy, political issues, family, and comorbidities. Conclusions: Most of the elderly displayed positive attitudes concerning booster shots, but it was discovered that some barriers need to be removed.
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(1) Background: Abundant evidence has shown that the COVID-19 vaccine booster is highly effective against the Omicron variant. It is of great practical significance to explore the factors influencing the intention to receive COVID-19 booster shots. (2) Methods: We introduced expectation confirmation theory as the basis to construct a model of the factors of the vaccination intention for COVID-19 vaccine boosters. We obtained two batches of questionnaires through Chinese social platforms, with a valid sample size of 572. To test the model, we used SmartPLS3.0 software for empirical analysis. (3) Results: In terms of the characteristics of the vaccine itself, perceived vaccine efficacy and perceived vaccine safety had significant positive effects on expectation confirmation. Regarding vaccination services, perceived vaccination convenience also had a significant positive effect on expectation confirmation. Expectation confirmation positively affected the vaccination intention for the COVID-19 vaccine boosters. Furthermore, the results showed two moderating effects: first, health consciousness negatively moderated the positive effect of perceived vaccine safety on expectation confirmation; second, the time interval since the last dose negatively moderated the positive effect of perceived vaccine efficacy on expectation confirmation. (4) Conclusions: Our research demonstrated that there is an expectation confirmation process for previous COVID-19 vaccines before people consider whether to obtain a booster shot. Perceived vaccine efficacy and perceived vaccine safety remained important factors in receiving COVID-19 booster shots, and our conclusions were consistent with previous literature. In this study, multiple dimensions such as distance and cost were used to measure perceived vaccination convenience. This new variable improve the explanatory power of the convenience of the vaccination service and enrich the variables of the factor model of vaccination intention. In addition, the moderating effects of health consciousness and time interval were found. The findings can provide a theoretical reference for public health institutions to help them understand the formation process of people's intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine booster.
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Axillary adenopathy post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination has been well-documented and is seen with other types of vaccinations. Isolated trabecular thickening on mammography, however, is singular to COVID-19 vaccination, which implies that this finding may result from a distinct pathophysiologic mechanism. Herein, we describe the first case of axillary tail trabecular thickening resulting from the second booster of the COVID-19 vaccination series. Both breast cancer and mastitis may present similar findings. Ipsilateral injection of COVID-19 vaccine/booster and spontaneous resolution on follow-up provide clues to the etiology. It has been hypothesized that proinflammatory conditions may predispose to axillary tail trabecular thickening on mammography post-COVID-19 vaccination. Proinflammatory conditions such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes may also predispose to breast cancer, making this scenario even more of a diagnostic dilemma. This scenario would more likely be seen in lower socioeconomic communities, African Americans, and Hispanics, who demonstrate a higher prevalence of these diseases, and who are also more vulnerable due to health care disparities negatively affecting these groups. We discuss our case and the importance of this public health issue. Sequela of COVID vaccination and boosters will be encountered in the foreseeable future and could pose a diagnostic dilemma, thus potentially straining the healthcare system with unnecessary biopsies and patient anxiety if not recognized and appropriately managed.
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We previously reported that a second dose of BNT162b2 was safe and effective for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients. Here, we investigated the safety and efficacy of a third dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in allogeneic HSCT patients. Antibody titers against the S1 spike protein were measured using the QuaResearch COVID-19 Human IgM IgG ELISA kit. The previous study included 25 allogeneic HSCT patients who received two doses of BNT162b2. Following the exclusion of three patients because of the development of COVID-19 (n = 2) and loss to follow-up (n = 1), the study evaluated 22 allogeneic HSCT patients who received a third dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2 [n = 15] and mRNA-1273 [n = 7]). Median age at the time of the first vaccination was 56 (range, 23-71) years. Five patients were receiving immunosuppressants at the third vaccination, namely calcineurin inhibitors (CI) alone (n = 1), steroids alone (n = 2), or CI combined with steroids (n = 2). Twenty-one patients (95%) seroconverted after the third dose. None of our patients had serious adverse events, new-onset graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), or GVHD exacerbation after vaccination. A third dose of the BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccines was safe and effective for allogeneic HSCT patients.
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This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of different COVID-19 booster vaccines by measuring the serum antibody titer. SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid protein antibody (N-Ab), anti-spike protein antibody (S-Ab), and neutralizing antibody (Neut.Ab) were measured before and 4-6 weeks after booster vaccinations in healthcare personnel with a previous vaccination within 3-6 months. Personnel who previously received two doses of ChAdOx1 vaccine or two doses of BNT162b2 vaccine received the BNT162b2 vaccine (AAP and PPP groups, respectively). Personnel who previously received two doses of mRNA-1273 received the same vaccine as a booster dose (MMM group). Of the 917 participants, the AAP, MMM, and PPP groups comprised 837 (91.3%), 27 (2.9%), and 53 (5.8%) participants, respectively. The pre-booster S-Ab and Neut.Ab titer were significantly lower in the AAP group. After the booster vaccination, all participants were positive for S-Ab and Neut.Ab; furthermore, the S-Ab and Neut.Ab titer significantly increased in all three groups, although the post-booster S-Ab was lower in the AAP group than in the other groups. The post-booster Neut.Ab titer showed no significant difference among the groups. Our study's results suggest that booster vaccination, after two prior vaccinations, shows a significant effect regardless of the type of vaccine administered.
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BACKGROUND: Booster doses have been described as effective in reducing hospitalizations and deaths from the new variants. However, its coverage is heterogeneous in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), one of the regions most affected by the pandemic. We aimed to assess the factors associated with not receiving a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine booster dose in adults from LAC. METHODS: We analyzed a secondary database compiled by the University of Maryland and Facebook assessing the global impact of COVID-19. We included Facebook users over 18 years of age who resided in LAC and responded to the survey between February 13, 2022, and March 14, 2022. We evaluated sociodemographic characteristics, comorbidities, food, and economic insecurity, mental health, and vaccination-related practices. We calculated crude (cPR) and adjusted (aPR) prevalence ratios with their respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). RESULTS: The sample included 154,841 adults from 20 LAC countries. 33.7% (n = 46,459) reported not receiving the COVID-19 booster vaccine. Being under 75 years old, having a college, high school, pre-university, primary, or lower education, having no or 1 to 2 comorbidities, living in a town, having food insecurity, depressive symptoms, and having had COVID-19, were associated with a higher prevalence of not receiving the booster dose. In contrast, being female or non-binary and having anxiety symptoms were associated with a lower prevalence of not receiving the booster dose. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately three out of 10 adults surveyed in LAC reported not having received the booster vaccine. Authorities must design campaigns that promote receiving a booster dose considering the factors found.
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COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19 , Adult , Female , Humans , Adolescent , Aged , Male , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Prevalence , Latin America/epidemiology , Caribbean Region/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have played a crucial role in mitigating the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, few studies have addressed the optimal booster vaccine type in recipients of the primary series of BBIBP-CorV (an inactivated virus vaccine developed by Sinopharm). This study aimed to estimate the association between the heterologous or homologous COVID-19 vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study enrolled healthcare personnel (HCP) who had completed two doses of BBIBP-CorV between November 2020 and September 2021. The associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and boosters were measured using multivariable logistic regression, comparing the odds of a positive COVID-19 test result between the no booster group and booster groups (BNT162b2 {Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine} group and BBIBP-CorV group, respectively). A total of 495 HCP comprising 326 (65.9%) in the BNT162b2 group, 121 (24.4%) in the no booster group, and 48 (9.7%) in the BBIBP-CorV group enrolled. One hundred thirty-six cases (27.5%) tested positive for COVID-19. The odds ratios for testing positive after booster dose were 0.401 (95% CI: 0.187-0.860, p = 0.019) and 0.446 (95% CI: 0.170-1.167, p = 0.100) for BNT162b2 and BBIBP-CorV group, respectively. The BNT162b2 booster in HCP after a second dose of BBIBP-CorV, relative to no booster, and the BBIBP-CorV booster, was associated with protection against laboratory-confirmed COVID-19.