YSPH Biostatistics Seminar: “Estimating Vaccine Efficacy Against Transmission: Statistical and Epidemiological Challenges"

NOTE: You are invited to attend in person, but may also attend via Zoom.

SPEAKER: Lee Kennedy-Shaffer, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Vassar College

TITLE: “Estimating Vaccine Efficacy Against Transmission: Statistical and Epidemiological Challenges"

ABSTRACT: Understanding how vaccines affect the future of an infectious disease outbreak and public health more broadly requires an assessment of how well they prevent infection and transmission in addition to disease. While most vaccine trials use outcomes like symptomatic disease, we can use statistical, epidemiological, and biological understanding to design studies that identify other aspects of vaccine performance. In this talk, I will give an overview of trial designs that target these estimands and dive into our proposal to use viral load to estimate vaccine efficacy against transmission, detailing the statistical challenges and epidemiological assumptions necessary. I also discuss the generalizability of these effect estimates as the epidemic progresses and changes and policy questions that arise. These studies have an important role to play alongside other designs in predicting and stopping epidemics.

YSPH values inclusion and access for all participants. If you have questions about accessibility or would like to request an accommodation, please contact Charmila Fernandes at Charmila.fernandes@yale.edu. We will try to provide accommodations requested by December 6, 2023.