Safety of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine among healthcare workers in China

ABSTRACT

Background: Although the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (CoronaVac) has undergone preclinical tests and clinical trials evaluating its efficacy and safety, few data have been reported in the post-licensure real-world setting. We aimed to assess the safety of the vaccine among healthcare workers.

Methods: A self-administered online survey on monitoring adverse reactions post vaccination was conducted among the staff who worked at and were vaccinated in a tertiary hospital in Taizhou, China, from February 24 to 7 March 2021. A total of 1526 subjects responded to the questionnaire when they received an e-mail or an e-poster on WeChat.

Results: The incidences of overall adverse reactions after the first and second injections were 15.6% (238/1526) and 14.6% (204/1397), respectively. The most common adverse reaction was localized pain at the injection site, with an incidence of 9.6% and 10.7% after each dose, accounting for 61.8% and 73.0% of adverse reactions, respectively. Fatigue, muscle pain, and headache were the most common systemic adverse reactions.

Conclusions: These findings implied that the inactivated CoronaVac vaccine has an acceptable safety profile among healthcare workers due to the low incidence of self-reported adverse reactions. This may boost public confidence in nationwide mass vaccination campaigns.

KEYWORDS:

• Adverse reaction
• China
• COVID-19 vaccination
• healthcare workers
• safety

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank participants for their cooperation and support.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

A reviewer on this manuscript has disclosed grant funding from Merck & Co. Inc. for unrelated research. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have received an honoraria for their review work.

Author contributions

M-X Zhang and T-H Tung conceived the study. T-T Zhang, G-F Shi, Y-M Zheng and F-M Cheng collected the data. M-X Zhang was responsible for the coding of the analyses. M-X Zhang and T-H Tung analyzed and interpreted the data. M-X Zhang wrote the first draft of the paper and interpreted the relevant literature. T-H Tung, T-T Zhang, G-F Shi, Y-M Zheng, F-M Cheng, and H-X Chen edited and approved the final manuscript.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.