The effect of vaccination on transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): a rapid review
The COVID-19 vaccination programme has been successful in reducing the impact of severe COVID-19 disease on hospitalisation, morbidity and mortality. However, the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against transmission is less clear, in particular for people with milder or asymptomatic infection, or in an era of new variants. We previously conducted a RR that aimed to examine evidence on the transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 from vaccinated people to unvaccinated or vaccinated people (Report number – RR00012, November 2021). At the time of this previous review, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) were setting up a living rapid review on the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This Living RR was continued until January 2022 when the last update search was conducted (UKHSA, 2022).
This RR represents an update (search up to 15 March 2022) of the last version of the UKHSA living RR, and addresses the following review questions:
- Does vaccination against COVID-19 affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to others, in the subgroup of people who contract COVID-19 post-vaccination?
- How does risk of onward transmission vary with vaccine type, completion of the vaccination course, duration after vaccination, at different baseline community transmission levels and SARS-CoV-2 variant in the vaccinated person?
RR00054