Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to implement a long-term study of immune responses in individuals vaccinated against covid-19.

The Department is funding several studies of immune responses to COVID-19 including the SARS-CoV-2 Immunity and Reinfection EvaluatioN (SIREN) study in health care workers; the Vivaldi study in care home residents and workers; and the COVID-19 Infection Survey led by the Office for National Statistics of repeat household visits looking at those who have antibodies to COVID-19, either from vaccination or previous infection.

The National Institute for Health Research’s Health Protection Research Unit in Respiratory Infections is also looking at the size and longevity of the immune response and Public Health England is monitoring antibody levels in individuals who have received either the Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.