Roundup highlights:

  • INSIGHTS in this week’s report to SAGE
  • WATCH our interview with Kamlesh Khunti on ethnicity and COVID-19
  • DISCOVER COVID-19 data and tools on the HDR Innovation Gateway

INSIGHTS: This week’s report to SAGE

This week we published the latest research insights and data access updates in our regular report that we share with SAGE (the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), UK Research and Innovation and the wider science community.

The highlights for this report include:

  • It has been revealed that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is 85% and 94% effective, respectively, against COVID-19 related hospitalisation – find out more
  • Public Health England monitoring data also suggested that COVID-19 cases in older vaccinated people are half as likely to lead to hospitalisation and/or death – find out more
  • Research showed no increased risk of COVID-19 during school openings for staff or students when there were strict mitigation measures in places – find out more
  • A separate analysis of data suggested that teachers are not at an increased risk in primary and secondary schools where more students are infected – find out more
  • The Office for National Statistics found that teachers have a higher probability of testing positive for COVID-19 compared with some other occupations. These studies all provide valuable evidence for decision-makers – find out more

Read the full SAGE report

This week’s patient and public voice feedback:

As we move towards an easing of restrictions, key areas of research that need to be prioritised to increase understanding and inform decisions include:

  • Ways to overcome vaccine hesitancy, low vaccine coverage, and impact of the vaccine programme on transmission.
  • How presentation of COVID-19 symptoms may vary between different groups and populations. This will ensure the list of symptoms that trigger a COVID test are as accurate as possible and therefore help monitor and reduce transmission rates.

Find out more

WATCH: Interview with Kamlesh Khunti

We spoke to Kamlesh Khunti, Professor of Primary Care Diabetes & Vascular Medicine – about his work investigating ethnicity and COVID-19 and the determinants of excess risk. In this 4-minute video, Kamlesh tells us about the data needs to link inequalities, and how minority ethnic groups have been found to be at greater risk of COVID-19 – watch here

DISCOVER: COVID-19 data on the HDR Innovation Gateway

Datasets, projects, and tools that are relevant to COVID-19 research can be discovered on the Gateway.  You can search and discover COVID-19 datasets and view the collections of datasets and tools being used by each of the National Core Studies.

Some notable, recently listed datasets include NHS record level data for people that have received COVID-19 vaccinations and REACT-2 (Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission Study 2), the large-scale surveillance study from Imperial College which examines the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in the community.

Researchers can view and request access to many more datasets through “the Gateway” including UK Biobank – find out more