Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the study of covid-19 vaccine responses in cancer patients conducted by King’s College and the Francis Crick Institute with preliminary findings reported in March 2021, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the interval between covid-19 vaccine doses for cancer patients.

The findings of the study, which has not yet been published or peer-reviewed, should be used cautiously as they are indicative and do not provide suitable data to infer directly the level of clinical protection. It should be noted that antibody expression following vaccination may only be part of the protection afforded by the vaccine. For example, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine induces a weak antibody response after first dose in the elderly, but recent Public Health England data shows strong clinical protection against hospitalisation and mortality in the same age group.