April 14, 2021

immune response in over 80 year olds 5 weeks after vaccination with one dose of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

A new preprint from the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium and the University of Birmingham looks at the antibody and cellular immune responses in people over 80 years of age 5 weeks after one dose of either the BNT162b2 mRNA or ChAdOx1 adenovirus vaccine. As far as the authors are aware, this is the first study to directly compare immune responses to different COVID-19 vaccines for any age cohort.

Please note this data is a preprint, so it is early work that has not yet been through peer-review and is not published in a journal.

Journalists dialled in to this briefing to hear the study investigators present their results and answer any questions.

Speakers included:

Prof Paul Moss, UK-CIC lead and Professor of Haematology at the University of Birmingham and Director of Research and Knowledge Transfer in the College of Medicine

Dr Helen Parry, NIHR academic clinical lecturer,  University of Birmingham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham

This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of Comments.