Expert Rev Vaccines . COVID-19 vaccines: concerns beyond protective efficacy and safety

[tetano]

Expert Rev Vaccines


. 2021 Jun 26.
doi: 10.1080/14760584.2021.1949293. Online ahead of print.
COVID-19 vaccines: concerns beyond protective efficacy and safety


Chih-Cheng Lai ¹ , I-Tzu Chen ² , Chien-Ming Chao ³ , Ping-Ing Lee ⁴ , Wen-Chien Ko ⁵ , Po-Ren Hsueh ^{6 7}



Affiliations

• PMID: 34180347
• DOI: 10.1080/14760584.2021.1949293

Abstract

Introduction: Several vaccine candidates have been developed using different platforms, including nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), viral vectors (replicating and non-replicating), virus-like particles, peptide-based, recombinant proteins, live attenuated, and inactivated virus modalities. Although many of these vaccines are undergoing pre-clinical trials, several large clinical trials investigating the clinical efficacy and safety of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines have produced promising findings.
Areas covered: In this review, we provide a status update on COVID-19 vaccines currently undergoing clinical trials and discuss issues of concern beyond vaccine efficacy and safety, including dosing regimens, the mixed vaccine strategy, prior severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection, antibody levels, cellular immunity and protection, variants of concern, COVID-19 vaccine distribution, vaccination willingness, herd immunity, immunity passports, and vaccine indications.
Expert opinion: Four vaccines have obtained emergency use authorization, 87 are at the clinical development stage, and 186 are in pre-clinical development. While the knowledge and development of COVID-19 vaccines is rapidly expanding, the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines must outweigh the potential risks of adverse events. To combat the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians should consistently update COVID-19-associated information, and healthcare authorities and manufacturers should work together to provide adequate and appropriate vaccinations for the prevention of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cellular immunity; protective efficacy; safety; vaccination willingness; vaccine; variants of concern.