PONE-D-22-15479COVID-19 and Bangladeshi Health Professionals: Infection status, vaccination and its immediate health consequencePLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Banu,

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This is an important research in the field of COVID-19. I have some specific comments about your manuscript

Abstract

Introduction: The justification should be more succinct as it is in the body of the literature. The objective should be explicitly described. Consider my suggested objective in the manuscript.

Method: You need to remove the sentence on the composition of the health workers. Rather, you should have the information on the content of the questionnaire in this section.

Results: You need to add the 95% CI for the infection rates.

Introduction

Line 85, please write out the full meaning of SAGE if its appearing here for the first time.

Line 103, what do you mean by ‘novel professional’? Please this should be clearer or choose the appropriate word.

Please add the objective of this study to the end of the introduction section.

The justification/rationale for this study within the introduction is too lengthy for an article. Please endeavor to summarize it.

Method

You had no information on the study setting; the readers may be interested in this. The prevention measures prevalent in the hospital, presence of a functional IPC team, nature of COVID-19 immunization activities, actions for AEFIs following Covid-19 vaccination etc. You can cite reference, if it has been previously published.

Mention the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the respondents.

Mention the sampling procedure for selecting the hospitals.

For the sample size, just quote your minimum sample size (372). You do not need to start explaining the non-response rate. It is a finding and should strictly be in the result section.

Line 135, p=0.41 from the reference cited, and not p=0.59, please replace.

How did you check for duplicates of entries since it was an online based questionnaire?

You need to report the source of the 10 respondents used for the pretest.

It is not clear how the infection status of the respondents was determined? Please explain or cite reference, if it has been previously published.

Results

Add your response rate (316/372) 84.9%.

Line 183; add the mean age of the respondents or as the case may be. Unless, it has been earlier published.

Line 229-234, report only the adjusted Odds Ratio and its 95% CIs.

Discussion

Line 255-264, the first paragraph of the discussion should start with stating what the aim of the work was and a summary of your findings.

Your recommendation still sounds like the rationale for the study. Please rephrase appropriately based on your conclusion.

You had no statement on limitation, especially being an online-based questionnaire, likewise on the generalizability of your findings. Please can you explain this? Otherwise, address them in the body of the manuscript.

A lot of grammatical errors please address them. I was able to address some in the manuscript.

Reviewer #2: Considerations:Thank you for the opportunity to review this article.

Overall:The article is well written and substantiated. I congratulate the authors for their initiative.

Title: Well presented

Abstract:

The abstract is longer than 300 words

Introduction:

On line 89 the acronym SAGE was placed without describing what it means. The first time an acronym is recorded it should say what it means.

I would add in line 64, the number of active health workers in Bangladesh, because by putting only the number of deaths you don't have the dimension of how many died, if it was a lot or a little? This enriches the argument about how serious the number of deaths among health workers is.

In line 78 : "through then, we could eradicate small pox & nearly eliminate the wild-polio.[14]" Place the quote before the period.

Method:

A detailed description is needed, especially of the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.

Further detail the eligibility and exclusion criteria for participants.

How was the question of COVID-19 infection, was it considered what types of testing? How did you guys consider this data?

Results:

Better specify what Immediate health consequences of COVID-19 vaccination would be.

Discussion:

Well presented

Conclusion:

Resume in the conclusion what the immediate health consequences of having had an infection and being vaccinated are for the health of the health care worker. What happens if the professional is infected? And what are the repercussions of vaccination in this professional category?

This is the moment to value your findings.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Considerations.docx

COVID-19 and Bangladeshi Health Professionals: Infection status, vaccination and its immediate health consequences

PONE-D-22-15479R1

Dear Dr. Banu

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Raphael Mendonça Guimaraes, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: