FEBRAURY 2022 – Since the middle of last year, the Schön Klinik Düsseldorf and the Helios Klinik Berlin-Buch have been project partners of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in the multicentre COViK study. The COViK study is a hospital-based case-control study with the aim of gaining insights into the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
The study will run until June 2023 and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Health.
The COViK study aims to determine the extent to which vaccinations can prevent severe illness from COVID-19. It is a case-control study that is being conducted with hospital patients at various locations throughout Germany. Targeted interim analyses serve to provide findings on the efficacy and safety of the vaccines administered in Germany as soon as possible. The participants will be enrolled in the study by the study staff at the study sites. The aim is to enrol > 3,000 patients (1:2 matching).
Vaccine effectiveness will be determined by comparing COVID-19 vaccination status in COVID-19 patients and control patients (SARS-COV-2 negative). Efficacy will also be assessed for the different vaccines and virus variants. In addition, the study will focus on COVID-19 vaccination in relation to severe diseases in different groups of people, e.g., the elderly and those with underlying chronic diseases. The duration of protection will also be estimated during the two-year recruitment phase.
Another focus of the study is the examination of COVID-19 patients who have previously been vaccinated. Immunological examinations will be carried out on these patients in order to exclude a possible amplification of the disease by vaccine antibodies (the so-called “antibody-dependent enhancement” (ADE) or “Vaccine Associated Enhanced Respiratory Disease” (VAERD)). In addition, the clinical course of a SARS-CoV-2 infection will be compared in vaccinated and non-vaccinated participating persons.
Article published in the January 2022 BDPK newsletter
