Re: Subramanian and Kumar. Vaccination rates and COVID-19 cases

Excerpt

Subramanian and Kumar’s (2021) correspondence outlines an exploratory group-level analysis between population-level vaccination proportions (in several dozen countries and a few thousand U.S. counties) and increases in rates of cases of SARS-CoV-2 over a seven-day period, compared to a prior seven-day period [1]. This correspondence, while an interesting exercise in analyzing group-level data, is incomplete in several ways, presented without caveats and clarifications crucial for readers to consider when critically evaluating this type of analysis [2]. Clarity in research is especially important during a time of heightened misuse/misinterpretation of statistics regarding vaccination efficacy and effectiveness, when incomplete and/or misinterpreted information may be co-opted for purposes other than authors’ intentions, potentially leading to further vaccine hesitancy within individuals and/or communities, hindering public health efforts to lower infection rates. …