Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

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

Public Heath England’s surveillance strategy will monitor how effective the vaccine is at protecting against a range of outcomes, including infection, symptomatic disease, hospitalisations, mortality and onward transmission. The surveillance strategy is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccine-surveillance-strategy.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), are jointly funding the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (UK-CIC) to address key questions around the immune system’s response to COVID-19. The NIHR’s Health Protection Research Unit in Respiratory Infections is also looking at the size and longevity of the immune response.