This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
How effective are the COVID-19 vaccines?
Assessing COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness under real-world conditions
Challenge
With millions of cases of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths in the U.S. alone, the public health burden of COVID-19 has been significant, impacting both lives and livelihoods. Understanding of the specific signs and symptoms, severe outcomes, and associated medical complications of COVID-19 is still evolving.
Numerous knowledge gaps still exist regarding how COVID-19 and, especially, severe manifestations of the disease impact different sociodemographic and high-risk groups. The recent availability of the much-needed vaccines is very promising. But, how effective are these vaccines on the population at large, and what type of illness will they prevent?
Westat is supporting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in this research.
Solution
Westat has engaged 7 large health systems across the country to use a common protocol and rapidly contribute bi-weekly data from electronic health records (EHRs) and pharmacy outpatient and inpatient records related to COVID-19 testing, vaccinations, illness, and severe outcomes.
Using Amazon Web Services (AWS), we are capturing and harmonizing data in a central database and have instituted procedures for quality assurance and control.
Our statisticians will assist CDC with analyses by comparing groups of people who do and do not get vaccinated and people who do and do not get COVID-19 to assess how well COVID-19 vaccines are working to protect people.
Results
Results from COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness analyses will help CDC learn more about vaccine effectiveness among different populations and over time. Results will further illuminate signs and symptoms associated with COVID-19 illness; who is receiving each vaccine (by age, race, ethnicity, underlying medical conditions); and how different groups respond to the vaccine.
These results will help inform CDC’s recommendations about how people can protect themselves from COVID-19.
Focus Areas
Clinical Research Multisite Epidemiology Studies Public HealthCapabilities
Biostatistics and Epidemiology Data Integration, Harmonization, and Complex Analytics Data ScienceTopics
COVID-19Senior Expert Contact
Sarah Ball
Vice President & Lead Scientific/Epidemiology Advisor
-
Perspective
APHA 2023 Recap of Westat’s ActivitiesNovember 2023
Westat staff made a strong impact on the 2023 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting & Expo, held in Atlanta, Georgia, November 12-15, 2023!…
-
Perspective
Westat @ APHA 2023November 2023
We’re eager to join our public health colleagues at the American Public Health Association (APHA)’s 2023 Annual Meeting & Expo, in Atlanta, Georgia, November 12-15,…
-
Perspective
Playing a New Role, States Set Visions for Summer LearningNovember 2023
To counter pandemic-related learning loss, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in March 2021 called on state education agencies (SEAs) and school districts to deliver…