The Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccinations

At the Directorate transparency and honesty are always the guiding principles in information sharing. In the COVID-19 pandemic data and research, from Iceland and abroad, have been used, as well as recommendations and guidelines from international organizations such as the European Union's Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Individual questions and requests for information, which fall under the area of the Directorate, are always answered to the best of our ability and based on the available knowledge at any given time. Recipients can sometimes disagree with our answers and it is not always certain that the parties involved are satisfied with the information they receive. The Directorate is not obliged to prepare data according to all requests made by individuals or institutions if the data or information is not available. But public data is accessible to everyone. However, the office does its best to provide and even prepare data, if possible, when a reasonable and appropriate request for such is received. Such requests can be a motivation to improve our information sharing and they are usually well received.

In addition, it should be pointed out that it is not unusual for the presentation of data or how information is communicated to change over time, especially in a situation that lasts for several years. Thus, the presentation of COVID-19 statistics on the covid.is website did undergo various changes depending on the progress of the pandemic, e.g. when the omicron variant appeared and an epidemic peak was reached in Iceland, which tested the endurance of many systems and processes. Please note that the Chief Epidemiologist and the Dept. of Civil Protection no longer maintain a dedicated website for COVID-19; information about the disease can be found on the website of the Chief Epidemiologist/Directorate of Health at island.is.

What is important now regarding vaccination against COVID-19 is that research from abroad, in accordance with our experience in Iceland, has shown that booster vaccination against COVID-19 protects against serious illness, including illness caused by the omicron variant of the virus, although protection wanes after 4-6 months (1). We will therefore again this autumn encourage high-risk groups to receive a booster vaccination against COVID-19, together with their annual influenza vaccination.

The Chief Epidemiologist

(1) References include:

• Higdon, Melissa M., et al. Duration of effectiveness of vaccination against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 22.8 (2022): 1114-1116.
  

• Feikin, Daniel R., et al. Duration of effectiveness of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease: results of a systematic review and meta-regression. The Lancet (2022).
  

• International Vaccine Access Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, World Health Organization (WHO), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Results of COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Studies: An Ongoing Systematic Review (accessed 21 April 2023).