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Goldberg Y, Amir O, Mandel M, Freedman L, Bar-On YM, Bodenheimer O, Milo R, Huppert A. Measuring vaccine protection when the population is mostly vaccinated. J Clin Epidemiol 2023; 163:111-116. [PMID: 37774957 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2023.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Revised: 08/30/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/01/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES This study aims to address limitations in assessing vaccine protection using the classical vaccine effectiveness (VE) measure, especially in contexts where a significant portion of the population is already vaccinated or infected. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING We propose using the adjusted number of cases (ANC) as a building block for deriving vaccine effectiveness measures. This approach accounts for biases arising from small and unrepresentative unvaccinated reference groups with incomplete data. We demonstrate the use of these measures for assessing the protection conferred by a booster dose against severe COVID-19 using data from Israel. RESULTS The use of ANC and the derived measures reveals a more comprehensive understanding of the complex immunity landscape compared to traditional VE measures. This approach enables meaningful comparisons between different vaccination categories and provides insights to inform policy decisions. CONCLUSION In situations with widespread vaccination and prior infections, traditional VE measures can be limited in their informative value. Using the ANC offers a more robust and insightful assessment of vaccine effectiveness. A demonstration of the evaluation of booster dose protection against severe COVID-19 in Israel underscores the importance of adopting complementary measures to guide public health strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yair Goldberg
- The Faculty of Data and Decisions Science, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
| | - Ofra Amir
- The Faculty of Data and Decisions Science, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- The Department of Statistics and Data Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Laurence Freedman
- The Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Omri Bodenheimer
- Division of Public Health, Israel Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- The Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel; Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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Amir O, Goldberg Y, Mandel M, Bar-On YM, Freedman LS, Bodenheimer O, Huppert A, Milo R. Three phases of increasing complexity in estimating vaccine protection. Int J Epidemiol 2023; 52:1299-1302. [PMID: 37244650 DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyad073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/29/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Ofra Amir
- Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Yair Goldberg
- Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Laurence S Freedman
- Bio-Statistical and Bio-Mathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | | | - Amit Huppert
- Bio-Statistical and Bio-Mathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel
- Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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Park SW, Sun K, Abbott S, Sender R, Bar-On YM, Weitz JS, Funk S, Grenfell BT, Backer JA, Wallinga J, Viboud C, Dushoff J. Inferring the differences in incubation-period and generation-interval distributions of the Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2221887120. [PMID: 37216529 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2221887120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2023] [Indexed: 05/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Estimating the differences in the incubation-period, serial-interval, and generation-interval distributions of SARS-CoV-2 variants is critical to understanding their transmission. However, the impact of epidemic dynamics is often neglected in estimating the timing of infection-for example, when an epidemic is growing exponentially, a cohort of infected individuals who developed symptoms at the same time are more likely to have been infected recently. Here, we reanalyze incubation-period and serial-interval data describing transmissions of the Delta and Omicron variants from the Netherlands at the end of December 2021. Previous analysis of the same dataset reported shorter mean observed incubation period (3.2 d vs. 4.4 d) and serial interval (3.5 d vs. 4.1 d) for the Omicron variant, but the number of infections caused by the Delta variant decreased during this period as the number of Omicron infections increased. When we account for growth-rate differences of two variants during the study period, we estimate similar mean incubation periods (3.8 to 4.5 d) for both variants but a shorter mean generation interval for the Omicron variant (3.0 d; 95% CI: 2.7 to 3.2 d) than for the Delta variant (3.8 d; 95% CI: 3.7 to 4.0 d). The differences in estimated generation intervals may be driven by the "network effect"-higher effective transmissibility of the Omicron variant can cause faster susceptible depletion among contact networks, which in turn prevents late transmission (therefore shortening realized generation intervals). Using up-to-date generation-interval distributions is critical to accurately estimating the reproduction advantage of the Omicron variant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sang Woo Park
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
| | - Kaiyuan Sun
- Division of International Epidemiology and Population Studies, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
| | - Sam Abbott
- Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK
| | - Ron Sender
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Joshua S Weitz
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332
- School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332
- Institut de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, Paris 75005, France
| | - Sebastian Funk
- Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK
| | - Bryan T Grenfell
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
- Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08542
| | - Jantien A Backer
- Center for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, 3720 Bilthoven, The Netherlands
| | - Jacco Wallinga
- Center for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, 3720 Bilthoven, The Netherlands
- Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Leiden University Medical Center, 2333 Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Cecile Viboud
- Division of International Epidemiology and Population Studies, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
| | - Jonathan Dushoff
- Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, L8S 4L8 ON, Canada
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, L8S 4L8 ON, Canada
- M. G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, L8S 4L8 ON, Canada
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Amir O, Goldberg Y, Mandel M, Bar-On YM, Bodenheimer O, Freedman L, Alroy-Preis S, Ash N, Huppert A, Milo R. Protection against Omicron BA.1/BA.2 severe disease 0-7 months after BNT162b2 booster. Commun Biol 2023; 6:315. [PMID: 36959496 PMCID: PMC10035472 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04669-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Following evidence of waning immunity against both infection and severe disease after 2 doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine, Israel began administering a 3rd BNT162b2 dose (booster) in July 2021. Recent studies showed that the 3rd dose provides a much lower protection against infection with the Omicron variant compared to the Delta variant and that this protection wanes quickly. However, there is little evidence regarding the protection of the 3rd dose against Omicron (BA.1/BA.2) severe disease. In this study, we estimate the preservation of immunity from severe disease up to 7 months after receiving the booster dose. We calculate rates of severe SARS-CoV-2 disease between groups of individuals aged 60 and above, comparing those who received two doses at least 4 months previously to those who received the 3rd dose (stratified by the time from vaccination), and to those who received a 4th dose. The analysis shows that protection conferred by the 3rd dose against Omicron severe disease did not wane over a 7-month period. Moreover, a 4th dose further improved protection, with a severe disease rate approximately 3-fold lower than in the 3-dose cohorts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ofra Amir
- Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Yair Goldberg
- Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
| | - Micha Mandel
- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | | | - Laurence Freedman
- The Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | | | - Nachman Ash
- Israel Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- The Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel
- The Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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Rosenberg Y, Bar-On YM, Fromm A, Ostikar M, Shoshany A, Giz O, Milo R. The global biomass and number of terrestrial arthropods. Sci Adv 2023; 9:eabq4049. [PMID: 36735788 PMCID: PMC9897674 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq4049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Insects and other arthropods are central to terrestrial ecosystems. However, data are lacking regarding their global population abundance. We synthesized thousands of evaluations from around 500 sites worldwide, estimating the absolute biomass and abundance of terrestrial arthropods across different taxa and habitats. We found that there are ≈1 × 1019 (twofold uncertainty range) soil arthropods on Earth, ≈95% of which are soil mites and springtails. The soil contains ≈200 (twofold uncertainty range) million metric tons (Mt) of dry biomass. Termites contribute ≈40% of the soil biomass, much more than ants at ≈10%. Our estimate for the global biomass of above-ground arthropods is more uncertain, highlighting a knowledge gap that future research should aim to close. We estimate the combined dry biomass of all terrestrial arthropods at ≈300 Mt (uncertainty range, 100 to 500), similar to the mass of humanity and its livestock. These estimates enhance the quantitative understanding of arthropods in terrestrial ecosystems and provide an initial holistic benchmark on their decline.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Amir Fromm
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Meital Ostikar
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Aviv Shoshany
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Omer Giz
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yair Goldberg
- Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) provides natural immunity against reinfection. Recent studies have shown waning of the immunity provided by the BNT162b2 vaccine. The time course of natural and hybrid immunity is unknown. METHODS Using the Israeli Ministry of Health database, we extracted data for August and September 2021, when the B.1.617.2 (delta) variant was predominant, on all persons who had been previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 or who had received coronavirus 2019 vaccine. We used Poisson regression with adjustment for confounding factors to compare the rates of infection as a function of time since the last immunity-conferring event. RESULTS The number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection per 100,000 person-days at risk (adjusted rate) increased with the time that had elapsed since vaccination with BNT162b2 or since previous infection. Among unvaccinated persons who had recovered from infection, this rate increased from 10.5 among those who had been infected 4 to less than 6 months previously to 30.2 among those who had been infected 1 year or more previously. Among persons who had received a single dose of vaccine after previous infection, the adjusted rate was low (3.7) among those who had been vaccinated less than 2 months previously but increased to 11.6 among those who had been vaccinated at least 6 months previously. Among previously uninfected persons who had received two doses of vaccine, the adjusted rate increased from 21.1 among those who had been vaccinated less than 2 months previously to 88.9 among those who had been vaccinated at least 6 months previously. CONCLUSIONS Among persons who had been previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 (regardless of whether they had received any dose of vaccine or whether they had received one dose before or after infection), protection against reinfection decreased as the time increased since the last immunity-conferring event; however, this protection was higher than that conferred after the same time had elapsed since receipt of a second dose of vaccine among previously uninfected persons. A single dose of vaccine after infection reinforced protection against reinfection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yair Goldberg
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Omri Bodenheimer
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Laurence S Freedman
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nachman Ash
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Sharon Alroy-Preis
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- From the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., N.A., S.A.-P.), Jerusalem, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.S.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
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Bar-On YM, Goldberg Y, Mandel M, Bodenheimer O, Amir O, Freedman L, Alroy-Preis S, Ash N, Huppert A, Milo R. Protection by a Fourth Dose of BNT162b2 against Omicron in Israel. N Engl J Med 2022; 386:1712-1720. [PMID: 35381126 PMCID: PMC9006780 DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa2201570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 222] [Impact Index Per Article: 111.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND On January 2, 2022, Israel began administering a fourth dose of BNT162b2 vaccine to persons 60 years of age or older. Data are needed regarding the effect of the fourth dose on rates of confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). METHODS Using the Israeli Ministry of Health database, we extracted data on 1,252,331 persons who were 60 years of age or older and eligible for the fourth dose during a period in which the B.1.1.529 (omicron) variant of SARS-CoV-2 was predominant (January 10 through March 2, 2022). We estimated the rate of confirmed infection and severe Covid-19 as a function of time starting at 8 days after receipt of a fourth dose (four-dose groups) as compared with that among persons who had received only three doses (three-dose group) and among persons who had received a fourth dose 3 to 7 days earlier (internal control group). For the estimation of rates, we used quasi-Poisson regression with adjustment for age, sex, demographic group, and calendar day. RESULTS The number of cases of severe Covid-19 per 100,000 person-days (unadjusted rate) was 1.5 in the aggregated four-dose groups, 3.9 in the three-dose group, and 4.2 in the internal control group. In the quasi-Poisson analysis, the adjusted rate of severe Covid-19 in the fourth week after receipt of the fourth dose was lower than that in the three-dose group by a factor of 3.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.7 to 4.6) and was lower than that in the internal control group by a factor of 2.3 (95% CI, 1.7 to 3.3). Protection against severe illness did not wane during the 6 weeks after receipt of the fourth dose. The number of cases of confirmed infection per 100,000 person-days (unadjusted rate) was 177 in the aggregated four-dose groups, 361 in the three-dose group, and 388 in the internal control group. In the quasi-Poisson analysis, the adjusted rate of confirmed infection in the fourth week after receipt of the fourth dose was lower than that in the three-dose group by a factor of 2.0 (95% CI, 1.9 to 2.1) and was lower than that in the internal control group by a factor of 1.8 (95% CI, 1.7 to 1.9). However, this protection waned in later weeks. CONCLUSIONS Rates of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe Covid-19 were lower after a fourth dose of BNT162b2 vaccine than after only three doses. Protection against confirmed infection appeared short-lived, whereas protection against severe illness did not wane during the study period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinon M Bar-On
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Yair Goldberg
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Omri Bodenheimer
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Ofra Amir
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Laurence Freedman
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Sharon Alroy-Preis
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nachman Ash
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G., O.A.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, (M.M.) and the Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
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Amir O, Goldberg Y, Mandel M, Bar-On YM, Bodenheimer O, Ash N, Alroy-Preis S, Huppert A, Milo R. Protection following BNT162b2 booster in adolescents substantially exceeds that of a fresh 2-dose vaccine. Nat Commun 2022; 13:1971. [PMID: 35418201 PMCID: PMC9008037 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29578-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Israel began administering a BNT162b2 booster dose to restore protection following the waning of the 2-dose vaccine. Biological studies have shown that a "fresh" booster dose leads to increased antibody levels compared to a fresh 2-dose vaccine, which may suggest increased effectiveness. To compare the real-world effectiveness of a fresh (up to 60 days) booster dose with that of a fresh 2-dose vaccine, we took advantage of a quasi-experimental study that compares populations that were eligible to receive the vaccine at different times due to age-dependent policies. Specifically, we compared the confirmed infection rates in adolescents aged 12-14 (215,653 individuals) who received the 2-dose vaccine and in adolescents aged 16-18 (103,454 individuals) who received the booster dose. Our analysis shows that the confirmed infection rate was lower by a factor of 3.7 (95% CI: 2.7 to 5.2) in the booster group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ofra Amir
- Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Yair Goldberg
- Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
| | - Micha Mandel
- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | | | - Nachman Ash
- Israel Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel
| | | | - Amit Huppert
- The Bio-statistical and Bio-mathematical Unit, The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel
- The Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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Abstract
BACKGROUND After promising initial results from the administration of a third (booster) dose of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) to persons 60 years of age or older, the booster campaign in Israel was gradually expanded to persons in younger age groups who had received a second dose at least 5 months earlier. METHODS We extracted data for the period from July 30 to October 10, 2021, from the Israel Ministry of Health database regarding 4,696,865 persons 16 years of age or older who had received two doses of BNT162b2 at least 5 months earlier. In the primary analysis, we compared the rates of confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), severe illness, and death among those who had received a booster dose at least 12 days earlier (booster group) with the rates among those who had not received a booster (nonbooster group). In a secondary analysis, we compared the rates in the booster group with the rates among those who had received a booster 3 to 7 days earlier (early postbooster group). We used Poisson regression models to estimate rate ratios after adjusting for possible confounding factors. RESULTS The rate of confirmed infection was lower in the booster group than in the nonbooster group by a factor of approximately 10 (range across five age groups, 9.0 to 17.2) and was lower in the booster group than in the early postbooster group by a factor of 4.9 to 10.8. The adjusted rate difference ranged from 57.0 to 89.5 infections per 100,000 person-days in the primary analysis and from 34.4 to 38.3 in the secondary analysis. The rates of severe illness in the primary and secondary analyses were lower in the booster group by a factor of 17.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 15.1 to 21.2) and 6.5 (95% CI, 5.1 to 8.2), respectively, among those 60 years of age or older and by a factor of 21.7 (95% CI, 10.6 to 44.2) and 3.7 (95% CI, 1.3 to 10.2) among those 40 to 59 years of age. The adjusted rate difference in the primary and secondary analyses was 5.4 and 1.9 cases of severe illness per 100,000 person-days among those 60 years of age or older and 0.6 and 0.1 among those 40 to 59 years of age. Among those 60 years of age or older, mortality was lower by a factor of 14.7 (95% CI, 10.0 to 21.4) in the primary analysis and 4.9 (95% CI, 3.1 to 7.9) in the secondary analysis. The adjusted rate difference in the primary and secondary analyses was 2.1 and 0.8 deaths per 100,000 person-days. CONCLUSIONS Across the age groups studied, rates of confirmed Covid-19 and severe illness were substantially lower among participants who received a booster dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine than among those who did not.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinon M Bar-On
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Yair Goldberg
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Omri Bodenheimer
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Laurence Freedman
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Sharon Alroy-Preis
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nachman Ash
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (L.F., A.H.) - all in Israel
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Abstract
BACKGROUND In December 2020, Israel began a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) by administering the BNT162b2 vaccine, which led to a sharp curtailing of the outbreak. After a period with almost no cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, a resurgent Covid-19 outbreak began in mid-June 2021. Possible reasons for the resurgence were reduced vaccine effectiveness against the delta (B.1.617.2) variant and waning immunity. The extent of waning immunity of the vaccine against the delta variant in Israel is unclear. METHODS We used data on confirmed infection and severe disease collected from an Israeli national database for the period of July 11 to 31, 2021, for all Israeli residents who had been fully vaccinated before June 2021. We used a Poisson regression model to compare rates of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe Covid-19 among persons vaccinated during different time periods, with stratification according to age group and with adjustment for possible confounding factors. RESULTS Among persons 60 years of age or older, the rate of infection in the July 11-31 period was higher among persons who became fully vaccinated in January 2021 (when they were first eligible) than among those fully vaccinated 2 months later, in March (rate ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 2.0). Among persons 40 to 59 years of age, the rate ratio for infection among those fully vaccinated in February (when they were first eligible), as compared with 2 months later, in April, was 1.7 (95% CI, 1.4 to 2.1). Among persons 16 to 39 years of age, the rate ratio for infection among those fully vaccinated in March (when they were first eligible), as compared with 2 months later, in May, was 1.6 (95% CI, 1.3 to 2.0). The rate ratio for severe disease among persons fully vaccinated in the month when they were first eligible, as compared with those fully vaccinated in March, was 1.8 (95% CI, 1.1 to 2.9) among persons 60 years of age or older and 2.2 (95% CI, 0.6 to 7.7) among those 40 to 59 years of age; owing to small numbers, the rate ratio could not be calculated among persons 16 to 39 years of age. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that immunity against the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 waned in all age groups a few months after receipt of the second dose of vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yair Goldberg
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Omri Bodenheimer
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Laurence Freedman
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Eric J Haas
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Sharon Alroy-Preis
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nachman Ash
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
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12
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Abstract
BACKGROUND In December 2020, Israel began a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) by administering the BNT162b2 vaccine, which led to a sharp curtailing of the outbreak. After a period with almost no cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, a resurgent Covid-19 outbreak began in mid-June 2021. Possible reasons for the resurgence were reduced vaccine effectiveness against the delta (B.1.617.2) variant and waning immunity. The extent of waning immunity of the vaccine against the delta variant in Israel is unclear. METHODS We used data on confirmed infection and severe disease collected from an Israeli national database for the period of July 11 to 31, 2021, for all Israeli residents who had been fully vaccinated before June 2021. We used a Poisson regression model to compare rates of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe Covid-19 among persons vaccinated during different time periods, with stratification according to age group and with adjustment for possible confounding factors. RESULTS Among persons 60 years of age or older, the rate of infection in the July 11-31 period was higher among persons who became fully vaccinated in January 2021 (when they were first eligible) than among those fully vaccinated 2 months later, in March (rate ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 2.0). Among persons 40 to 59 years of age, the rate ratio for infection among those fully vaccinated in February (when they were first eligible), as compared with 2 months later, in April, was 1.7 (95% CI, 1.4 to 2.1). Among persons 16 to 39 years of age, the rate ratio for infection among those fully vaccinated in March (when they were first eligible), as compared with 2 months later, in May, was 1.6 (95% CI, 1.3 to 2.0). The rate ratio for severe disease among persons fully vaccinated in the month when they were first eligible, as compared with those fully vaccinated in March, was 1.8 (95% CI, 1.1 to 2.9) among persons 60 years of age or older and 2.2 (95% CI, 0.6 to 7.7) among those 40 to 59 years of age; owing to small numbers, the rate ratio could not be calculated among persons 16 to 39 years of age. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that immunity against the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 waned in all age groups a few months after receipt of the second dose of vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yair Goldberg
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Omri Bodenheimer
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Laurence Freedman
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Eric J Haas
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Sharon Alroy-Preis
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nachman Ash
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- From Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.), and the Israeli Ministry of Health (O.B., E.J.H., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.), and Ben Gurion University, Beersheva (E.J.H.) - all in Israel
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Hatton IA, Heneghan RF, Bar-On YM, Galbraith ED. The global ocean size spectrum from bacteria to whales. Sci Adv 2021; 7:eabh3732. [PMID: 34757796 PMCID: PMC8580314 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh3732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/14/2021] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
It has long been hypothesized that aquatic biomass is evenly distributed among logarithmic body mass size classes. Although this community structure has been observed regionally, mostly among plankton groups, its generality has never been formally tested across all marine life over the global ocean, nor have the impacts of humans on it been globally assessed. Here, we bring together data at the global scale to test the hypothesis from bacteria to whales. We find that biomass within most order of magnitude size classes is indeed remarkably constant, near 1 gigatonne (Gt) wet weight (1015 g), but bacteria and large marine mammals are markedly above and below this value, respectively. Furthermore, human impacts appear to have significantly truncated the upper one-third of the spectrum. This dramatic alteration to what is possibly life’s largest-scale regularity underscores the global extent of human activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian A. Hatton
- Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ryan F. Heneghan
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QD 4000, Australia
| | - Yinon M. Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel
| | - Eric D. Galbraith
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0E8, Canada
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Bar-On YM, Goldberg Y, Mandel M, Bodenheimer O, Freedman L, Kalkstein N, Mizrahi B, Alroy-Preis S, Ash N, Milo R, Huppert A. Protection of BNT162b2 Vaccine Booster against Covid-19 in Israel. N Engl J Med 2021. [PMID: 34525275 DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa2114255/suppl_file/nejmoa2114255_disclosures.pdf] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/01/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND On July 30, 2021, the administration of a third (booster) dose of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) was approved in Israel for persons who were 60 years of age or older and who had received a second dose of vaccine at least 5 months earlier. Data are needed regarding the effect of the booster dose on the rate of confirmed coronavirus 2019 disease (Covid-19) and the rate of severe illness. METHODS We extracted data for the period from July 30 through August 31, 2021, from the Israeli Ministry of Health database regarding 1,137,804 persons who were 60 years of age or older and had been fully vaccinated (i.e., had received two doses of BNT162b2) at least 5 months earlier. In the primary analysis, we compared the rate of confirmed Covid-19 and the rate of severe illness between those who had received a booster injection at least 12 days earlier (booster group) and those who had not received a booster injection (nonbooster group). In a secondary analysis, we evaluated the rate of infection 4 to 6 days after the booster dose as compared with the rate at least 12 days after the booster. In all the analyses, we used Poisson regression after adjusting for possible confounding factors. RESULTS At least 12 days after the booster dose, the rate of confirmed infection was lower in the booster group than in the nonbooster group by a factor of 11.3 (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.4 to 12.3); the rate of severe illness was lower by a factor of 19.5 (95% CI, 12.9 to 29.5). In a secondary analysis, the rate of confirmed infection at least 12 days after vaccination was lower than the rate after 4 to 6 days by a factor of 5.4 (95% CI, 4.8 to 6.1). CONCLUSIONS In this study involving participants who were 60 years of age or older and had received two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine at least 5 months earlier, we found that the rates of confirmed Covid-19 and severe illness were substantially lower among those who received a booster (third) dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinon M Bar-On
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Yair Goldberg
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Omri Bodenheimer
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Laurence Freedman
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nir Kalkstein
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Barak Mizrahi
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Sharon Alroy-Preis
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nachman Ash
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
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15
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Bar-On YM, Goldberg Y, Mandel M, Bodenheimer O, Freedman L, Kalkstein N, Mizrahi B, Alroy-Preis S, Ash N, Milo R, Huppert A. Protection of BNT162b2 Vaccine Booster against Covid-19 in Israel. N Engl J Med 2021; 385:1393-1400. [PMID: 34525275 PMCID: PMC8461568 DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa2114255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 767] [Impact Index Per Article: 255.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND On July 30, 2021, the administration of a third (booster) dose of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) was approved in Israel for persons who were 60 years of age or older and who had received a second dose of vaccine at least 5 months earlier. Data are needed regarding the effect of the booster dose on the rate of confirmed coronavirus 2019 disease (Covid-19) and the rate of severe illness. METHODS We extracted data for the period from July 30 through August 31, 2021, from the Israeli Ministry of Health database regarding 1,137,804 persons who were 60 years of age or older and had been fully vaccinated (i.e., had received two doses of BNT162b2) at least 5 months earlier. In the primary analysis, we compared the rate of confirmed Covid-19 and the rate of severe illness between those who had received a booster injection at least 12 days earlier (booster group) and those who had not received a booster injection (nonbooster group). In a secondary analysis, we evaluated the rate of infection 4 to 6 days after the booster dose as compared with the rate at least 12 days after the booster. In all the analyses, we used Poisson regression after adjusting for possible confounding factors. RESULTS At least 12 days after the booster dose, the rate of confirmed infection was lower in the booster group than in the nonbooster group by a factor of 11.3 (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.4 to 12.3); the rate of severe illness was lower by a factor of 19.5 (95% CI, 12.9 to 29.5). In a secondary analysis, the rate of confirmed infection at least 12 days after vaccination was lower than the rate after 4 to 6 days by a factor of 5.4 (95% CI, 4.8 to 6.1). CONCLUSIONS In this study involving participants who were 60 years of age or older and had received two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine at least 5 months earlier, we found that the rates of confirmed Covid-19 and severe illness were substantially lower among those who received a booster (third) dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinon M Bar-On
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Yair Goldberg
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Micha Mandel
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Omri Bodenheimer
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Laurence Freedman
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nir Kalkstein
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Barak Mizrahi
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Sharon Alroy-Preis
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Nachman Ash
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
| | - Amit Huppert
- From the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Y.M.B.-O., R.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Y.G.), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.M.) and Israel Ministry of Health (O.B., S.A.-P., N.A.), Jerusalem, the Biostatistical and Biomathematical Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan (L.F., A.H.), KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal (N.K., B.M.), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (A.H.) - all in Israel
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16
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Abstract
Quantitatively describing the time course of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection within an infected individual is important for understanding the current global pandemic and possible ways to combat it. Here we integrate the best current knowledge about the typical viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in bodily fluids and host tissues to estimate the total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions in an infected person. We estimate that each infected person carries 109 to 1011 virions during peak infection, with a total mass in the range of 1 μg to 100 μg, which curiously implies that all SARS-CoV-2 virions currently circulating within human hosts have a collective mass of only 0.1 kg to 10 kg. We combine our estimates with the available literature on host immune response and viral mutation rates to demonstrate how antibodies markedly outnumber the spike proteins, and the genetic diversity of virions in an infected host covers all possible single nucleotide substitutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ron Sender
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Shmuel Gleizer
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Biana Bernshtein
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Avi Flamholz
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
| | - Rob Phillips
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
- Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA 94158
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel;
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17
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Abstract
Quantitatively describing the time course of the SARS-CoV-2 infection within an infected individual is important for understanding the current global pandemic and possible ways to combat it. Here we integrate the best current knowledge about the typical viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in bodily fluids and host tissues to estimate the total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions in an infected person. We estimate that each infected person carries 109-1011 virions during peak infection, with a total mass in the range of 1-100 μg, which curiously implies that all SARS-CoV-2 virions currently circulating within human hosts have a collective mass of only 0.1-10 kg. We combine our estimates with the available literature on host immune response and viral mutation rates to demonstrate how antibodies markedly outnumber the spike proteins and the genetic diversity of virions in an infected host covers all possible single nucleotide substitutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ron Sender
- Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | | | | | - Biana Bernsthein
- Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
- Present address: Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Avi Flamholz
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Rob Phillips
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, 499 Illinois Street, SF CA 94158, USA
| | - Ron Milo
- Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
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18
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Gleizer S, Ben-Nissan R, Bar-On YM, Antonovsky N, Noor E, Zohar Y, Jona G, Krieger E, Shamshoum M, Bar-Even A, Milo R. Conversion of Escherichia coli to Generate All Biomass Carbon from CO 2. Cell 2020; 179:1255-1263.e12. [PMID: 31778652 PMCID: PMC6904909 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 233] [Impact Index Per Article: 58.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2019] [Revised: 10/17/2019] [Accepted: 11/04/2019] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
The living world is largely divided into autotrophs that convert CO2 into biomass and heterotrophs that consume organic compounds. In spite of widespread interest in renewable energy storage and more sustainable food production, the engineering of industrially relevant heterotrophic model organisms to use CO2 as their sole carbon source has so far remained an outstanding challenge. Here, we report the achievement of this transformation on laboratory timescales. We constructed and evolved Escherichia coli to produce all its biomass carbon from CO2. Reducing power and energy, but not carbon, are supplied via the one-carbon molecule formate, which can be produced electrochemically. Rubisco and phosphoribulokinase were co-expressed with formate dehydrogenase to enable CO2 fixation and reduction via the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle. Autotrophic growth was achieved following several months of continuous laboratory evolution in a chemostat under intensifying organic carbon limitation and confirmed via isotopic labeling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shmuel Gleizer
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Roee Ben-Nissan
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Niv Antonovsky
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Elad Noor
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Yehudit Zohar
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Ghil Jona
- Department of Life Sciences Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Eyal Krieger
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Melina Shamshoum
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Arren Bar-Even
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
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19
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is a harsh reminder of the fact that, whether in a single human host or a wave of infection across continents, viral dynamics is often a story about the numbers. In this article we provide a one-stop, curated graphical source for the key numbers (based mostly on the peer-reviewed literature) about the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is responsible for the pandemic. The discussion is framed around two broad themes: i) the biology of the virus itself; ii) the characteristics of the infection of a single human host.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of ScienceRehovotIsrael
| | - Avi Flamholz
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, BerkeleyBerkeleyUnited States
| | - Rob Phillips
- Department of Physics, Department of Applied Physics, and the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States
- Chan Zuckerberg BiohubSan FranciscoUnited States
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of ScienceRehovotIsrael
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20
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Bar-On YM, Milo R. The Biomass Composition of the Oceans: A Blueprint of Our Blue Planet. Cell 2019; 179:1451-1454. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2019] [Revised: 11/10/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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21
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Abstract
![]()
Rubisco
is the primary carboxylase of the Calvin cycle, the most
abundant enzyme in the biosphere, and one of the best-characterized
enzymes. On the basis of correlations between Rubisco kinetic parameters,
it is widely posited that constraints embedded in the catalytic mechanism
enforce trade-offs between CO2 specificity, SC/O, and maximum carboxylation rate, kcat,C. However, the reasoning that established this view
was based on data from ≈20 organisms. Here, we re-examine models
of trade-offs in Rubisco catalysis using a data set from ≈300
organisms. Correlations between kinetic parameters are substantially
attenuated in this larger data set, with the inverse relationship
between kcat,C and SC/O being a key example. Nonetheless, measured kinetic parameters
display extremely limited variation, consistent with a view of Rubisco
as a highly constrained enzyme. More than 95% of kcat,C values are between 1 and 10 s–1, and no measured kcat,C exceeds 15 s–1. Similarly, SC/O varies
by only 30% among Form I Rubiscos and <10% among C3 plant
enzymes. Limited variation in SC/O forces
a strong positive correlation between the catalytic efficiencies (kcat/KM) for carboxylation
and oxygenation, consistent with a model of Rubisco catalysis in which
increasing the rate of addition of CO2 to the enzyme–substrate
complex requires an equal increase in the O2 addition rate.
Altogether, these data suggest that Rubisco evolution is tightly constrained
by the physicochemical limits of CO2/O2 discrimination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Avi I Flamholz
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology , University of California , Berkeley , California 94720 , United States
| | - Noam Prywes
- Innovative Genomics Institute , University of California , Berkeley , California 94704 , United States
| | - Uri Moran
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences , Weizmann Institute of Science , Rehovot 76100 , Israel
| | - Dan Davidi
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences , Weizmann Institute of Science , Rehovot 76100 , Israel
| | - Yinon M Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences , Weizmann Institute of Science , Rehovot 76100 , Israel
| | - Luke M Oltrogge
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology , University of California , Berkeley , California 94720 , United States
| | - Rui Alves
- Institute of Biomedical Research of Lleida , IRBLleida , 25198 Lleida , Catalunya , Spain.,Departament de Ciències Mèdiques Bàsiques , University of Lleida , 25198 Lleida , Catalunya , Spain
| | - David Savage
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology , University of California , Berkeley , California 94720 , United States
| | - Ron Milo
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences , Weizmann Institute of Science , Rehovot 76100 , Israel
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Kaminski Strauss S, Schirman D, Jona G, Brooks AN, Kunjapur AM, Nguyen Ba AN, Flint A, Solt A, Mershin A, Dixit A, Yona AH, Csörgő B, Busby BP, Hennig BP, Pál C, Schraivogel D, Schultz D, Wernick DG, Agashe D, Levi D, Zabezhinsky D, Russ D, Sass E, Tamar E, Herz E, Levy ED, Church GM, Yelin I, Nachman I, Gerst JE, Georgeson JM, Adamala KP, Steinmetz LM, Rübsam M, Ralser M, Klutstein M, Desai MM, Walunjkar N, Yin N, Aharon Hefetz N, Jakimo N, Snitser O, Adini O, Kumar P, Soo Hoo Smith R, Zeidan R, Hazan R, Rak R, Kishony R, Johnson S, Nouriel S, Vonesch SC, Foster S, Dagan T, Wein T, Karydis T, Wannier TM, Stiles T, Olin-Sandoval V, Mueller WF, Bar-On YM, Dahan O, Pilpel Y. Evolthon: A community endeavor to evolve lab evolution. PLoS Biol 2019; 17:e3000182. [PMID: 30925180 PMCID: PMC6440615 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
In experimental evolution, scientists evolve organisms in the lab, typically by challenging them to new environmental conditions. How best to evolve a desired trait? Should the challenge be applied abruptly, gradually, periodically, sporadically? Should one apply chemical mutagenesis, and do strains with high innate mutation rate evolve faster? What are ideal population sizes of evolving populations? There are endless strategies, beyond those that can be exposed by individual labs. We therefore arranged a community challenge, Evolthon, in which students and scientists from different labs were asked to evolve Escherichia coli or Saccharomyces cerevisiae for an abiotic stress—low temperature. About 30 participants from around the world explored diverse environmental and genetic regimes of evolution. After a period of evolution in each lab, all strains of each species were competed with one another. In yeast, the most successful strategies were those that used mating, underscoring the importance of sex in evolution. In bacteria, the fittest strain used a strategy based on exploration of different mutation rates. Different strategies displayed variable levels of performance and stability across additional challenges and conditions. This study therefore uncovers principles of effective experimental evolutionary regimens and might prove useful also for biotechnological developments of new strains and for understanding natural strategies in evolutionary arms races between species. Evolthon constitutes a model for community-based scientific exploration that encourages creativity and cooperation. This Community Page article describes Evolthon; a first-of-its-kind community-based effort, involving about 30 participant labs around the world, aiming to explore the best strategy for evolving microorganisms to cope with an environmental challenge.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Dvir Schirman
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Ghil Jona
- Department of Life Sciences Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Aaron N. Brooks
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Aditya M. Kunjapur
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Alex N. Nguyen Ba
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Alice Flint
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Andras Solt
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Andreas Mershin
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Atray Dixit
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Avihu H. Yona
- Physics of Living Systems, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Bálint Csörgő
- Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Bede Phillip Busby
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Bianca P. Hennig
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Csaba Pál
- Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Daniel Schraivogel
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Daniel Schultz
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - David G. Wernick
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Deepa Agashe
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India
| | - Dikla Levi
- Department of Life Sciences Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Dmitry Zabezhinsky
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Dor Russ
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Ehud Sass
- Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Einat Tamar
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Elad Herz
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Emmanuel D. Levy
- Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - George M. Church
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Idan Yelin
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Iftach Nachman
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Jeffrey E. Gerst
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Joseph M. Georgeson
- Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | | | - Lars M. Steinmetz
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
- Stanford Genome Technology Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Marc Rübsam
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Markus Ralser
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- The Molecular Biology of Metabolism laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Biochemistry, Charitè University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
| | - Michael Klutstein
- Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Michael M. Desai
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | | | - Ning Yin
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Noa Aharon Hefetz
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Noah Jakimo
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Olga Snitser
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Omri Adini
- Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Prashant Kumar
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Rachel Soo Hoo Smith
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Razi Zeidan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Ronen Hazan
- Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Roni Rak
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Roy Kishony
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
- Faculty of Computer Science, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Shannon Johnson
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Harvard University Extension School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Shira Nouriel
- Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Sibylle C. Vonesch
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Simmie Foster
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Tal Dagan
- Institute of Microbiology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
| | - Tanita Wein
- Institute of Microbiology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
| | - Thrasyvoulos Karydis
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Timothy M. Wannier
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Timothy Stiles
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- BosLab, Somerville, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Viridiana Olin-Sandoval
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Nutrition Physiology, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - William F. Mueller
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Yinon M. Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Orna Dahan
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Yitzhak Pilpel
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
- * E-mail:
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