It must be coming up to 3 weeks now since it was announced that people would be getting only the first dose of Pfizer vaccine, and given that this wasn't tested in the initial research, I am sure that they will be doing so now. Has anyone been recruited into such a study? I imagine it would likely be with HCP who got the vaccine in early January, as they're easier to test regularly, though the fact that they're younger and expected to mount a better immune response anyway might skew the results. But they must be keeping track of what sort of levels the antibodies are at, and watching to see if there is any significant decline?
The HCP I know were all in the AstraZenaca trial, so won't be involved in this.
If I understand it right, it's a different type of anti-body test that has to be used to measure antibodies from the vaccine, rather than anti-bodies from having Covid, but I think this is available?
I suppose the initial trials weren't done in the UK, so maybe there isn't provision set up for a trial here yet, but it must be happening soon, surely. I wonder when/if/where the results will be available, and if the regulators will have access to all the interim data in case they need to make rapid adjustments to the vaccine schedule.
Though they are also busy trying to work out if either vaccine will respond well to the South African variant, so maybe energies are directed towards that instead. But I do hope that there is ongoing monitoring of some form so that they could change the dosing regime if needed - even if that meant breaking the promise of all first doses for groups 1-4 being done by mid-Feb. I know it would be an unpopular choice for the government, but they couldn't - I hope! - ignore science that showed it really wasn't working, even if they can ignore science saying that it's unregulated and untested... or have I too much faith in them.