Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department is undertaking on the long-term effectiveness of covid-19 vaccines for blood cancer patients.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is providing £4 million towards the OCTAVE trial examining responses to COVID-19 vaccines in clinically at-risk groups, including those with certain blood cancers. The OCTAVE-DUO clinical trial (funded with £2.2 million from the Vaccines Taskforce and UKRI) is studying whether a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine will improve the immune response for people who have weakened immune systems.

UKRI is also providing £4 million for five COVID-19 research projects studying the durability of vaccine responses, low responses linked with health conditions, and the effect of booster shots. These studies include a wide range of people, including certain types of blood cancer.

Additionally, UKRI is supporting the MELODY study which aims to recruit immunosuppressed people, including those with blood cancer, to work out their immune response to COVID-19 vaccination and future risk of infection, hospitalisation and survival over a six-month period.

The National Institute for Health Research is also providing infrastructure support to the PROSECO study evaluating COVID-19 vaccine immune responses in people with lymphoid cancer; as well as the MyeloidScan study investigating the impact of COVID 19 infection and vaccination on organ function in patients with myeloid blood cancers.