Objectives The Hungarian vaccination campaign was conducted with five different vaccines
during the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. This observational study (HUN-VE:
Hungarian Vaccine Effectiveness) estimated vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2
infection and Covid-19 related mortality in 3.7 million vaccinated individuals. Methods
Incidence rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection and Covid-19 related mortality were calculated
using data from the National Public Health Center (NPHC) surveillance database. Estimated
vaccine effectiveness was calculated as 1 – incidence rate ratio (IRR) ≥7 days after
the second dose for each available vaccine vs. an unvaccinated control group using
mixed effect negative binomial regression controlling for age, sex and calendar day.
Results Between 22 January 2021 and 10 June 2021, 3,740,066 Hungarian individuals
received two doses of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech), HB02 (Sinopharm), Gam-COVID-Vac
(Sputnik-V), AZD1222 (AstraZeneca), or mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccines. Incidence rates
of SARS-CoV2 infection and Covid-19 related death were 1.73–9.3/100,000 person-days
and 0.04–0.65/100.000 person-days in the fully vaccinated population, respectively.
Estimated adjusted effectiveness varied between 68.7% (95% CI 67.2–70.1%) and 88.7%
(95% CI: 86.6–90.4%) against SARS-CoV-2 infection, and between 87.8% (95% CI: 86.1–89.5%)
and 97.5% (95% CI: 95.6–98.6%) against Covid-19 related death, with 100% effectiveness
in individuals aged 16–44 years for all vaccines. Conclusions Our observational study
demonstrated the high or very high effectiveness of five different vaccines in the
prevention SARS-CoV-2 infection and Covid-19 related death.
