A new study by researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine finds those who received the Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccine are less likely to experience "breakthrough" COVID-19 cases, compared to recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine.
A vaccine breakthrough infection occurs when a person becomes infected after being fully vaccinated (receiving two doses of the mRNA vaccine), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The research—which also found those who received the Moderna vaccine were less likely to be hospitalized, compared to recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine—was published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study examines breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections, hospitalizations and death rates when the Delta variant was predominant.
Rong Xu, professor of bioinfomatics and director of the Center for AI in Drug Discovery at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and study author, said the study analyzed electronic health records of more than 637,000 fully vaccinated patients from 63 healthcare organizations across the United States, covering diverse geographic, age, races and ethnicities, income levels and insurance groups.