Serological responses and vaccine effectiveness for extended COVID-19 vaccine schedules in England

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27410-5
• Publication Date: 2021-12-10T11:04:11Z
• Authors: Gayatri Amirthali...; Jamie Lopez Bernal; Nick J. Andrews; Heather Whitaker; Charlotte Gower; Julia Stowe; Elise Tessier; Sathyavani Subbarao; Georgina Ireland; Frances Baawuah; Ezra Linley; Lenesha Warrener; Michelle O’Brien; Corinne Whillock; Paul Moss; Shamez N. Ladhani; Kevin E. Brown; Mary E. Ramsay
• Keywords: Antibody response; 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak; Vaccination schedule; spike protein

Abstract The UK prioritised delivery of the first dose BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech) and AZD1222 (AstraZeneca) vaccines by extending interval between doses up to 12 weeks. In 750 participants aged 50–89 years, we here compare serological responses after vaccination with varying intervals, evaluate these against real-world national vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates COVID-19 in England. We show that antibody levels 14–35 days two are higher recipients an extended (65–84 days) compared those vaccinated a standard (19–29 interval. Following schedule, were 6-fold at post 2 for than AZD1222. For both vaccines, VE was across all age-groups from 14 one dose, but magnitude varied Higher observed >6 week schedule. Our findings suggest infection using Given global constraints results relevant policymakers.