Effects of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination of adults on lower respiratory tract infections and antibiotic use in primary care: authors' response

Abstract

In response to Theilacker et al. we explain that we consider the point estimate as well as the confidence bounds in our interpretation of the study results and do not treat confidence intervals as a dichotomous signal. We refute that the proposed calculation of vaccine preventable disease incidence is more valuable than calculation of vaccine efficacy. Finally we remain at our conclusion that PCV13 vaccination in the elderly is unlikely to cause a relevant reduction in the incidence of CAP, LRTI, LRTI-related antibiotic use or total antibiotic use in primary care.