Correlation between measles immunization coverage and overall morbidity and mortality for COVID-19: an epidemiological study

Altulayhi, Raed Ibrahim; Alqahtani, Rakan M.; Alakeel, Reem Abdullah; Khorshid, Faten Abdulrahman; Alshammari, Rehab Hamoud; Alattas, Sana Ghazi; Alshammari, Fahad Abdullah M.; Bin-Jumah, May; Abdel-Daim, Mohamed M.; Almohideb, Mohammad

We conducted the current analysis to determine the potential role of measles vaccination in the context of the spread of COVID-19. Data were extracted from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Health Observatory data repository about the measles immunization coverage estimates and correlated to overall morbidity and mortality for COVID-19 among different countries. Data were statistically analyzed to calculate the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (rho). There was a significant positive correlation between the vaccine coverage (%) and new cases per one million populations (rho = 0.24; p-value = 0.025); however, this correlation was absent in deaths per one million populations (rho = 0.17; p-value = 0.124). On further analysis of the effect of first reported year of vaccination policy, there was no significant correlation with both of total cases per one million populations (rho = 0.11; p-value = 0.327) and deaths per one million populations (rho = −0.02; p-value = 0.829). Claims regarding the possible protective effect of measles vaccination seem to be doubtful.