Efficiency and safety of COVID-19 vaccines: a comparative analysis

E.V. Reznik^1,2,3, A.S. Grigorievskaya^1,2, N.V. Vistovskaya², M.D. Iarovoi¹, I.V. Semenyakin², T.R. Kameneva^4,5

¹Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow

²Medsi Group JSC, Moscow

³Academician G.M. Savel’eva City Clinical Hospital No. 31, Moscow

⁴Research Institute of Public Health Organization and Medical Management, Moscow

⁵Federal Scientific and Clinical Center for Resuscitation and Rehabilitation, Solnechnogorsk, Lytkino village 

Vaccination is of great importance both to reduce COVID-19 morbidity and to ensure a milder disease in case of infection. Also, the vaccination impacts on the course of post-COVID-19 syndrome. In particular, it decreases the condition probability by 29% in vaccinated patients as compared with the control group. In total, more than 150 vaccines have been developed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them were sieved away at various stages of clinical trials. The paper reviews the vaccination efficiency as a general matter and in specific comorbid populations. The authors compared 8 of the most common COVID-19 vaccines: novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) prevention vaccineы according to several criteria (type, efficiency, and potential side effects of the vaccine). The COVID-19 prevention vaccine (Russia) proved to be the most efficient (97.6%). It had no adverse reactions other than local injection site reactions and a flu-like syndrome. Injection site inflammation, fever, muscle pain, headache, and fatigue are the most common complications after the vaccination. More rarely, post-vaccination myocarditis and vaccination-induced Guillain-Barré syndrome (especially after administration of DNA or RNA-containing vaccines) is reported.

Keywords: vaccination, coronavirus infection, COVID-19, long COVID, vaccine prevention, efficiency, novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) prevention vaccine.

For citation: Reznik E.V., Grigorievskaya A.S., Vistovskaya N.V., Iarovoi M.D., Semenyakin I.V., Kameneva T.R. Efficiency and safety of COVID-19 vaccines: a comparative analysis. RMJ. 2025;3:16–19. DOI: 10.32364/2225-2282-2025-3-3