How European Research Projects Can Support Vaccination Strategies: The Case of the ORCHESTRA Project for SARS-CoV-2
Anna Maria Azzini,
Lorenzo Maria Canziani,
Ruth Joanna Davis,
Massimo Mirandola,
Michael Hoelscher,
Laurence Meyer,
Cédric Laouénan,
Maddalena Giannella,
Jesús Rodríguez-Baño,
Paolo Boffetta,
Dana Mates,
Surbhi Malhotra-Kumar,
Gabriella Scipione,
Caroline Stellmach,
Eugenia Rinaldi,
Jan Hasenauer,
Evelina Tacconelli
Affiliations
Anna Maria Azzini
Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
Lorenzo Maria Canziani
Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
Ruth Joanna Davis
Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
Massimo Mirandola
Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
Michael Hoelscher
Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Medical Center of the University of Munich (LMU), 80802 Munich, Germany
Laurence Meyer
Centre de Recherche en Epidemiologie et Sante des Population, Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM), Universite Paris-Saclay, 94270 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France
Cédric Laouénan
INSERM, IAME UMR 1137, Universite Paris Cite, 75018 Paris, France
Maddalena Giannella
Infectious Diseases Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, 40138 Bologna, Italy
Jesús Rodríguez-Baño
Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Unit, Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena and Department of Medicine, Biomedicines Institute of Sevilla-CSIC, University of Sevilla, 41004 Sevilla, Spain
Paolo Boffetta
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, 40138 Bologna, Italy
Dana Mates
National Institute of Public Health, 050463 Bucharest, Romania
Surbhi Malhotra-Kumar
Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, Vaccine & Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
ORCHESTRA (“Connecting European Cohorts to Increase Common and Effective Response To SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic”) is an EU-funded project which aims to help rapidly advance the knowledge related to the prevention of the SARS-CoV-2 infection and the management of COVID-19 and its long-term sequelae. Here, we describe the early results of this project, focusing on the strengths of multiple, international, historical and prospective cohort studies and highlighting those results which are of potential relevance for vaccination strategies, such as the necessity of a vaccine booster dose after a primary vaccination course in hematologic cancer patients and in solid organ transplant recipients to elicit a higher antibody titer, and the protective effect of vaccination on severe COVID-19 clinical manifestation and on the emergence of post-COVID-19 conditions. Valuable data regarding epidemiological variations, risk factors of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its sequelae, and vaccination efficacy in different subpopulations can support further defining public health vaccination policies.
