Vaccination with BNT162b2 reduces transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to household contacts in Israel

ABSTRACT

The individual-level effectiveness of vaccines against clinical disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is well-established. However, few studies have directly examined the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on transmission. We quantified the effectiveness of vaccination with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA-based vaccine) against household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Israel. We fit two time-to-event models - a mechanistic transmission model and a regression model - to estimate vaccine effectiveness against susceptibility to infection and infectiousness given infection in household settings. Vaccine effectiveness against susceptibility to infection was 80-88%. For breakthrough infections among vaccinated individuals, the vaccine effectiveness against infectiousness was 41-79%. The overall vaccine effectiveness against transmission was 88.5%. Vaccination provides substantial protection against susceptibility to infection and slightly lower protection against infectiousness given infection, thereby reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to household contacts. One-Sentence SummaryVaccination reduced both the rate of infection with SARS-CoV-2 and transmission to household contacts in Israel.