• Nick K Jones, Lucy Rivett, Shaun Seaman, Richard J Samworth, Ben Warne, Chris Workman, Mark Ferris, Jo Wright, Natalie Quinnell, Ashley Shaw, Cambridge COVID-19 Collaboration, Ian G Goodfellow, Paul J Lehner, Rob Howes, Giles Wright, Nicholas J Matheson, and Michael P Weekes.
• Cambridge University NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
• Elife. 2021 Apr 8; 10.

AbstractThe BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) is being utilised internationally for mass COVID-19 vaccination. Evidence of single-dose protection against symptomatic disease has encouraged some countries to opt for delayed booster doses of BNT162b2, but the effect of this strategy on rates of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection remains unknown. We previously demonstrated frequent pauci- and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst healthcare workers (HCWs) during the UK's first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, using a comprehensive PCR-based HCW screening programme (Rivett et al., 2020; Jones et al., 2020). Here, we evaluate the effect of first-dose BNT162b2 vaccination on test positivity rates and find a fourfold reduction in asymptomatic infection amongst HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination. These data provide real-world evidence of short-term protection against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection following a single dose of BNT162b2 vaccine, suggesting that mass first-dose vaccination will reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, as well as the burden of COVID-19 disease.© 2021, Jones et al.

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