MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield Clinic Research Institute has made national headlines yet again as the primary lab in the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showing the continued effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
The study, published on Monday, is a follow-up analysis of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from the Institute’s previous work, which found in early April vaccine effectiveness to be 90% after the second dose.
The latest study shows that vaccines continue to be highly effective, and vaccinated individuals who did get COVID-19 had less detectable virus and were sick for significantly less time with reduced symptoms.
It also found the vaccines to be 91% effective after the second dose against COVID-19 and 81% after the first dose.
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While that’s just a small bump in percentage, Dr. Jennifer Meece, director of the institute’s Integrated Research and Development Laboratory, said the results are “great news from a public perspective.”
“These are the kind of studies guiding public health policy changes (and) changing mask policies,” Meece said. “This is the data that helps us navigate our way out of this pandemic.
“This is a good vaccine. This is the way out.”
The Research Institute has been following a large group of people at high risk of getting COVID-19 based on their occupation for a year now. Thanks to a $22.5 million grant from the CDC in July 2020, the Institute has tested 3,975 samples each week for 17 consecutive weeks from health care personnel, first responders and other frontline and essential workers across the country.
They have been self-swabbing their mouths and mailing the samples to Marshfield since last summer, Meece said.
The new study focused on the same population, but this time around, the Institute had more data and could do a deeper dive into the analysis, Meece said.
For Meece, the biggest takeaway was finding that those with “breakthrough infections” — individuals who were infected with COVID-19 after getting a vaccine — had less severe symptoms and were sick for fewer days.
The Research Institute will continue to monitor vaccine effectiveness in real-world conditions — but also against emerging COVID-19 strains, in various diverse populations and in children, Meece said. She said the Research Institute is also looking into how long vaccine viability will last.
She doesn’t have the answers yet and estimates her team will proceed with this research for at least another year, if not longer.
As for convincing those who are still hesitant about the vaccine to get the shots, Meece said it happens one conversation at a time.
“Fifteen months of my life and the lives of my staff have been dedicated to generating this data. As scientists, we just want science to help guide us out of this dark place,” she said. “The way to stop the transmission is through vaccination.”
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Contact Allison Garfield at 715-351-9799 or agarfield@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @aligarfield_.
