Minal Patel

Dear colleagues,

WHO’s interim guidance “Evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness” is now available at https://www.who.int/tools/covid-19-vaccine-introduction-toolkit#Evaluation%20of%20COVID-19%20vaccine%20introduction. From the site you’ll find links to the COVID-19 VE guidance, a sample size calculator, and generic protocols. Hopefully these are useful to you or others you know who might be working in this space.

We are still undertaking our scoping exercise to understand who is planning COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and impact studies, where they are being planned, and the key characteristics of such studies. This information will help WHO to understand the future availability of data to inform global policy and the gaps that need to be filled. We understand that plans are still being made and are subject to change. To help us, if you are planning on doing a COVID-19 vaccine impact or effectiveness study, please fill out this survey (https://forms.gle/xPAs4wdo6xq8Kswq7) with any relevant details. This form will take less than 5 minutes of your time.

Please forward this email to colleagues who might be conducting such studies. Questions can be addressed to [email protected] 

Sincerely, Danny Feikin and Minal Patel, Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals (IVB), World Health Organization 

Dear colleagues, After COVID-19 vaccines are introduced into countries, it will be vital to generate real-world data on vaccine effectiveness and impact, as many questions will remain unanswered by the clinical trials. Studies will likely be done in a variety of countries, in a variety of populations, and using a variety of study designs.

We are reaching out to the TechNet-21 community, as you or persons you know/work with might be planning to do such studies. WHO is undertaking a scoping exercise to understand who is planning COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and impact studies, where they are being planned, and the key characteristics of such studies. This information will help WHO to understand the future availability of data to inform global policy and the gaps that need to be filled.

We understand that plans are still being made and are subject to change; thus, we will likely be reaching out again in the future to request an update. Basic information on the studies planned will be shared through the WHO website (e.g. country of study, study design, objective of the study).

If you are planning on doing a COVID-19 vaccine impact or effectiveness study, please fill out this electronic form ( https://forms.gle/xPAs4wdo6xq8Kswq7 ) with any relevant details. This form will take less than 5 minutes of your time. Please send this to colleagues who might be conducting such studies.

Questions can be addressed to [email protected] 

Sincerely, Danny Feikin, MD Minal Patel, MD COVID Vaccine Effectiveness and Impact Work stream Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals (IVB) World Health Organization