Question reference: S6W-01342
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 9 July 2021
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 August 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made of the efficacy of two COVID-19 vaccinations for people with reduced immune functions (a) in general and (b) as a result of having received a solid organ transplant.
Answer
The Green Book notes that immunosuppression is one of the clinical risk groups for COVID-19 immunisation. This immunosuppression may be due to disease or treatment, including patients undergoing chemotherapy leading to immunosuppression, patients undergoing radical radiotherapy, solid organ transplant recipients, bone marrow or stem cell transplant recipients, HIV infection at all stages, multiple myeloma or genetic disorders affecting the immune system (e.g. IRAK-4, NEMO, complement disorder, SCID).
All the UK governments receive their expert clinical advice from the JCVI and the Committee has been closely monitoring this issue throughout the vaccination programme both from real world data from the UK programme and from the literature review from across the world.
The Committee are fully aware of the potential sub-optimal response to two doses of the vaccine by some immunosuppressed individuals and that’s why they recommended that these groups of people should be given highest priority for a booster programme in the autumn.
Furthermore, the Scottish Government welcome the results of the OCTAVE study led by Prof. McInesss of Glasgow University. OCTAVE is one of a number of studies looking at vaccine effectiveness through measuring immune response.
The study found that “while 40% of these clinically at-risk patient groups were found to have a low or undetectable immune response after a double dose of the vaccine, we are encouraged that this figure isn’t higher. However, it is possible even partial protection may be clinically beneficial, and this is something we will closely monitor."
These preliminary results of OCTAVE and the results of continuing and forthcoming research will be instrumental in helping inform how best to vaccinate patients with immunosuppressed conditions and protect them from COVID-19 infection in the future.
We await the JCVI’s final advice on any potential Covid-19 booster programme, with the interim advice being that this should begin in September 2021, in order to maximise protection in those who are most vulnerable to serious COVID-19 symptoms ahead of the winter months.