Warning that 1 in 3 adults will lack higher Covid antibody levels by next vaccination round
13 Aug 2022
A continued fall in the number of UK adults with higher level Covid antibody levels makes it likely that well over one third will lack this level of protection by October, warns a medical expert.
Chief Scientific Officer at London Medical Laboratory Dr Quinton Fivelman said figures from the Office of National Statistics demonstrated a substantial fall in the number with antibody levels of 800 ng/m.
This has fallen from a March peak of 82.4% to below 72% by mid-July. Fivelman said the present figure is likely to be lower still.
“As late as mid-April, over 80% of adults retained antibody levels of 800 ng/ml. Now it is likely to be less than 70%,” he commented.
“The simple truth is that, if this rate of decline continues to accelerate and the first UK adults don’t start receiving their boosters until October, only 60% of the population will retain substantial antibodies by the time they are jabbed.”
The ONS itself points out that the 800 ng/ml level is not based on academic research on protection against the Omicron variant, because sufficient evidence is not available.
However, insisted Fivelman, there was concern that the new Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants do not produce as high an immune response as the previous strains, “so re-infection is more likely to occur”.
Higher levels of antibodies were important to neutralise the virus, stopping infection and limiting people transmitting the virus to others, he said.
He called on the Government to accelerate its autumn top-up vaccine programme for the over-50s and called for the extension of the booster vaccine to all adults.
