The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded $4.9 million to the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California-Los Angeles to conduct an observational study of health care personnel in 16 academic medical centers around the country.

The study, known as Project PREVENT (PReventing Emerging Infections through Vaccine EffectiveNess Testing), is designed to measure the comparative effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine(s) by looking at how well the vaccine works, return-to-work practices, and how receptive people are to receiving the vaccine. The test-negative case control study will enroll up to 10,000 health care workers who are tested for COVID-19 over a 6- to 12-month period beginning this winter. COVID-19 infected participants will be matched in a 3:1 ratio with symptomatic non-COVID-19 controls, according to Nick Mohr, MD, MS, UI professor of emergency medicine, anesthesia critical care, and epidemiology, and co-principal investigator for the study.

"When vaccines are approved, we are going to enter an important 'next phase' of the COVID-19 pandemic," Mohr says. "Health care personnel will be among the first to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, and studying their experiences will give us insights into how we can protect both health care workers and the general public once a vaccine is more widely available."

The UI also will be the data coordinating center for this project.

Nick Mohr, MD, MS