{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pgph.0001111","title":"Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness against general SARS-CoV-2 infection from the omicron variant: A retrospective cohort study","abstract":"We aim to estimate the effectiveness of 2-dose and 3-dose mRNA vaccination (BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273) against general Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (asymptomatic or symptomatic) caused by the omicron BA.1 variant. This propensity-score matched retrospective cohort study takes place in a large public university undergoing weekly Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing in South Carolina, USA. The population consists of 24,145 university students and employees undergoing weekly Covid-19 testing between January 3 rd and January 31 st , 2022. The analytic sample was constructed via propensity score matching on vaccination status: unvaccinated, completion of 2-dose mRNA series (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273) within the previous 5 months, and receipt of mRNA booster dose (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273) within the previous 5 months. The resulting analytic sample consists of 1,944 university students (mean [SD] age, 19.64 [1.42] years, 66.4% female, 81.3% non-Hispanic White) and 658 university employees (mean [SD] age, 43.05 [12.22] years, 64.7% female, 83.3% non-Hispanic White). Booster protection against any SARS-CoV-2 infection was 66.4% among employees (95% CI: 46.1–79.0%; P < .001) and 45.4% among students (95% CI: 30.0–57.4%; P < .001). Compared to the 2-dose mRNA series, estimated increase in protection from the booster dose was 40.8% among employees ( P = .024) and 37.7% among students ( P = .001). We did not have enough evidence to conclude a statistically significant protective effect of the 2-dose mRNA vaccination series, nor did we have enough evidence to conclude that protection waned in the 5-month period after receipt of the 2 nd or 3 rd mRNA dose. Furthermore, we did not find evidence that protection varied by manufacturer. We conclude that in adults 18–65 years of age, Covid-19 mRNA booster doses offer moderate protection against general SARS-CoV-2 infection caused by the omicron variant and provide a substantial increase in protection relative to the 2-dose mRNA vaccination series.","journal":"PLOS Global Public Health","year":2023,"id":369713,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9487,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":874079,"name":"Zichen Ma","orcid":"0000-0001-5748-1675","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":275248,"name":"Christopher S. McMahan","orcid":"0000-0001-5056-9615","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":741955,"name":"Delphine Dean","orcid":"0000-0002-8631-2640","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":331891,"name":"Lior Rennert","orcid":"0000-0001-5275-7273","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":52,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:15:32.670954Z","pmid":"36777314","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}