Safety and effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines currently undergoing clinical trials. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched to collect open human COVID-19 vaccines randomized controlled trials, without limiting the search time and language. The research papers collected in the above-mentioned databases were initially screened according to the title and abstract content and merged, and the repeated ones were removed. After reading the full text of the remaining research, the studies that did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded, and finally, nine studies were obtained. After extracting the statistical data of adverse events in the study, load them into Review Manager for heterogeneity analysis. Results: The incidence of adverse reactions of inactivated virus vaccines, RNA vaccines, and adenovirus vector vaccines was higher than that of placebo. Common adverse reactions included pain, swelling, and fever at the injection site. Conclusion: From the perspective of effectiveness, RNA vaccine > adenovirus vector vaccine > inactivated virus vaccine. From the perspective of safety, the incidence of adverse reactions of the three vaccines is higher than that of a placebo, and the incidence of adverse reactions of the adenovirus vector vaccine is higher.

Automated summary

The study found that the incidence of adverse reactions of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines currently undergoing clinical trials is high, with common adverse reactions being pain, swelling, and fever at the injection site. From the perspective of effectiveness and safety, RNA vaccines perform the best among the three types of vaccines.