Vivaldi 3: Booster vaccination strongly enhances SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody and cellular responses in elderly residents of care homes
Published 23 December 2021
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Methodology
The Vivaldi 3 study, conducted by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with University College London, is an integral part of the Vivaldi project which was set up in June 2020 to investigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, infection outcomes and immunity in residents and staff in care homes in England.
For this paper, researchers analysed blood samples from 134 staff and residents in long term care facilities, who had received an mRNA booster vaccine following initial dual vaccination with either Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines. They examined the SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody responses of these donors for both the Wuhan and Delta strains. Blood sampling was carried out between 25 May 2021 and 18 November 2021.
Results
A COVID-19 booster vaccination markedly increases virus-specific immune responses in residents and staff within care homes.
Previous analysis from the Vivaldi study had shown that prior natural infection strongly enhanced subsequent COVID-19 vaccine responses, but that uninfected older people developed suboptimal post-vaccine immunity.
This new paper shows that:
- the added impact of booster vaccination led to a 12-fold increase in antibody response in this group
- among staff and residents with evidence of prior natural infection, the booster increased antibody levels by 4.1-fold and 3.2-fold among staff and residents respectively
- among participants without prior infection, the booster vaccine led to a larger increase in antibody response in staff and residents with relative increases of 6.4-fold and 12.3-fold respectively
- this analysis therefore shows that the effect of the booster has largely made up the gap in antibody levels between those who have no evidence of prior infection, and those who do
Conclusion
Booster vaccination strongly enhances COVID-19 immunity in care home residents and staff.
These findings emphasise just how important it is for both care home staff and residents to get a booster vaccine.
See the Vivaldi 3 report.