ArticleVaccines2021
COVID-19 Breakthrough Infections and Transmission Risk: Real-World Data Analyses from Germany's Largest Public Health Department (Cologne).
Article in Vaccines, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic literature review on public health and healthcare resources for pandemic preparedness planning.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Public health authorities in Germany during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic - a constructive-critical reflection.GMS hygiene and infection control · 2026Article
- The effect of COVID-19 vaccination on viral load among health care workers: a retrospective cohort study.Clinical and experimental vaccine research · 2025Article
- Results of the Cologne Corona Surveillance (CoCoS) project- a cross-sectional study: survey data on risk factors of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and moderate-to-severe course in primarily immunized adults.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Does the COVID-19 Vaccination Reduce the Risk to Transmit SARS-CoV-2 to Others?Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
- Article
- Article
- Natural history and cycle threshold values analysis of COVID-19 in Xiamen City, China.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2022Article
- Infectious viral shedding of SARS-CoV-2 Delta following vaccination: A longitudinal cohort study.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
- The Provision of Dental Care to COVID-19 Survivors: A Concise Review.International dental journal · 2022Review
- Analysis of a city-wide COVID-19 prevention strategy for aged-care facilities during third and fifth waves of COVID-19 in Kyoto City, Kyoto, Japan.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2022Article
- Article
- Identification of Aloe-derived natural products as prospective lead scaffolds for SARS-CoV-2 main protease (MBioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters · 2022Article
- School staff and teachers during the second year of COVID-19: Higher anxiety symptoms, higher psychological distress, and poorer mental health compared to the general population.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2022Article
- Article
- Enhanced Spike-specific, but attenuated Nucleocapsid-specific T cell responses upon SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough versus non-breakthrough infections.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- A comparative overview of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants of concern.Le infezioni in medicina · 2022Review
- A comprehensive analysis of the efficacy and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Ongoing Use of SSRIs Does Not Alter Outcome in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
methodsVaccination is currently considered the most successful strategy for combating the SARS-CoV-2 virus. According to short-term clinical trials, protection against infection is estimated to reach up to 95% after complete vaccination (≥14 days after receipt of all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses). Nevertheless, infections despite vaccination, so-called breakthrough infections, are documented. Even though they are more likely to have a milder or even asymptomatic course, the assessment of further transmission is highly relevant for successful containment. Therefore, we calculated the real-world transmission risk from fully vaccinated patients (vaccination group, VG) to their close contacts (CP) compared with the risk from unvaccinated reference persons matched according to age, sex, and virus type (control group = CG) utilizing data from Cologne's health department.
resultsA total of 357 breakthrough infections occurred among Cologne residents between 27 December 2020 (the date of the first vaccination in Cologne) and 6 August 2021. Of the 979 CPs in VG, 99 (10.1%) became infected. In CG, 303 of 802 CPs (37.8%) became infected. Factors promoting transmission included non-vaccinated status (
conclusionThe number of transmissions from unvaccinated controls was three times higher than from fully vaccinated patients. These real-world data underscore the importance of vaccination in enabling the relaxation of stringent and restrictive general pandemic control measures.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.