Single Dose of an mRNA Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) Vaccine Is Associated With Lower Nasopharyngeal Viral Load Among Nursing Home Residents With Asymptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

M Catherine McEllistrem; Cornelius J Clancy; Deanna J Buehrle; Aaron Lucas; Brooke K Decker

doi:10.1093/cid/ciab263

Single Dose of an mRNA Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) Vaccine Is Associated With Lower Nasopharyngeal Viral Load Among Nursing Home Residents With Asymptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Sep 15;73(6):e1365-e1367. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciab263.

Authors

M Catherine McEllistrem¹, Cornelius J Clancy^{1

2}, Deanna J Buehrle¹, Aaron Lucas^{1

2}, Brooke K Decker^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Section, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
² Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Abstract

In nursing home residents with asymptomatic COVID-19 diagnosed through twice-weekly surveillance testing, single-dose BNT162b2 vaccination (Pfizer-BioNTech) was associated with -2.4 mean log10 lower nasopharyngeal viral load than detected in absence of vaccination (P = .004). Since viral load is linked to transmission, single-dose mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccination may help control outbreaks.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; asymptomatic; cycle threshold; viral load.

MeSH terms

BNT162 Vaccine
COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19*
Humans
Nursing Homes
RNA, Messenger
SARS-CoV-2*
Viral Load

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines
RNA, Messenger
BNT162 Vaccine