Work in progress: Analysis of research paper titled "Comparison of Imaging Severity Between Vaccinated and Unvaccinated CoviD-19 Patients... " Pfindings:  Mediocre. Method was good, but presentation of statistics is misleading due to choice of statistical representation and failure to acknowledge background pfallacy.

• Time frame: 3 Months.
• Time period: March 1, 2021 through May 31, 2021 (outdated).
• Sample size: 1,316.
• Unvaccinated: 945. Mean age 47.2,
• Vaccinated: 371. Mean age 58 -- statistically significant advanced aged compared with unvaccinated cohort.
• Method: "Radiologists were blind to the vaccination status of the patients when determining the severity score."

Results:

As assessed per group:

• 61% of the vaccinated group had mild to moderate CTSS ranges; ~ 23% had severe CTSS ranges, and ~ 16% were evaluated as normal.
• ~ 64% of the unvaccinated group had mild to moderate CTSS ranges; 33% had severe CTSS ranges, and ~ 3% were evaluated as normal.

As assessed per entire study population:

• ~ 17% of vaccinated patients had mild to moderate CTSS ranges; 7% had severe CTSS, and 4-5% were evaluated as normal; making up roughly 28% of the total study group.
• ~  46% of the unvaccinated patients had mild to moderate CTSS ranges; 24% had severe CTSS, and 2% were evaluated as normal, making up roughly 72% of the total study population.

Evaluation

The study had a rough ratio of 1:3 vaccinated vs unvaccinated.  The expected representation without adjusting for vaccination status would then be:

• • Mild-to-moderate:   17:51 versus actual:  17:46.
  • Severe: 7:21 versus actual:  7:21.
  • Normal: 4-5:12-15 versus actual:  4-5:2.

In this perspective, there does not appear to be a predictive reduction outside of the reduced expectation of normal readings.  A shift from an expected 12 or 15 to only 2. Here, the potential interpretation would be that vaccination helps prevent development of lung disease that is visualized on computed tomography, though it does not appear that it reduces the absolute risk of severe, mild, or moderate disease. However, the median CR severity score was 2 points higher in the unvaccinated group; with the CTSS score being between 0 and 12, so 2 points is quite significant.

Reference

Singhal J, Goel C, Gupta V, et al. (October 26, 2022) Comparison of Imaging Severity Between Vaccinated and Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients: Perspective of an Indian District. Cureus 14(10): e30724. doi:10.7759/cureus.30724