This article is a Preprint
Preprints are preliminary research reports that have not been certified by peer review. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Preprints posted online allow authors to receive rapid feedback and the entire scientific community can appraise the work for themselves and respond appropriately. Those comments are posted alongside the preprints for anyone to read them and serve as a post publication assessment.
The imprinting effect of COVID-19 vaccines: an expected selection bias in observational studies (preprint)
medrxiv; 2022.
Preprint
in English
| medRxiv | ID: ppzbmed-10.1101.2022.11.30.22282923
ABSTRACT
Findings of recent observational studies have been interpreted as supporting immune imprinting of COVID-19 vaccines. In this work, we clarify that the current discussion can be mapped to an attempt to estimate the direct effect of vaccine boosters on SARS-CoV-2 reinfections, and that such direct effect cannot be correctly estimated with observational data. We conclude that recent observational estimates regarding immune imprinting are fundamentally biased, and that the increased risk of reinfection in individuals vaccinated with a vaccine booster compared to no booster is expected even if the immune imprinting hypothesis is false. We use graphical methods (directed acyclic graphs), data simulations and analysis of real-life data to illustrate the mechanism and magnitude of this bias.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Preprints
Database:
medRxiv
Main subject:
COVID-19
Language:
English
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Preprint
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS