Burden and impact of reactogenicity among adults receiving COVID-19 vaccines in the United States and Canada

Abstract

As SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to emerge, vaccination remains a critical tool to reduce the COVID-19 burden. Vaccine reactogenicity and the impact on work productivity/daily activities are recognized as contributing factors to vaccine hesitancy. To encourage continued COVID-19 vaccination, a more complete understanding of the differences in reactogenicity and impairment due to vaccine-related side effects across currently available vaccines is necessary. The 2019nCoV-406 study (n = 1367) was a prospective observational study of reactogenicity and associated impairments in adults in the United States and Canada who received an approved/authorized COVID-19 vaccine. Compared with recipients of mRNA COVID-19 booster vaccines, a smaller percentage of NVX-CoV2373 booster recipients reported local and systemic reactogenicity. This study's primary endpoint (percentage of participants with ≥50% overall work impairment on ≥1 of the 6 days post-vaccination period) did not show significant differences. However, the data suggest that NVX-CoV2373 booster recipients trended toward being less impaired overall than recipients of an mRNA booster; further research is needed to confirm this observed trend. The results of this real-world study suggest that NVX-CoV2373 may be a beneficial vaccine option with limited impact on non-work activities, in part due to the few reactogenicity events after vaccination.