Author: Srijit Mishra
Title: Methodological and Ethical Concerns in a Study on Effect of COVID-19 Vaccine among Health Care Workers in a Medical College of India
Abstract: A critical look into the nature of observational data from a study on effect of COVID-19 vaccine of health care workers points out some methodological and ethical concerns. Further analysis with relative and absolute risk reductions indicate that the effect size was lower, at times not significant and even negative when one tried to compare fully vaccinated with single dose, or tried to use person days (rather than number of health care workers) to account for differences in exposure. This, on the one hand, calls for caution in the media while reporting such results, and on the other hand, it calls for transparency and sharing of information in the public domain to facilitate wider scrutiny and informed debate.
Keywords: Absolute risk reduction, COVID-19, health care workers, relative risk reduction.
JEL Code: C19, I18
Weblink: http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2021-023.pdf
