There are many questions that need to be answered about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. Building on our earlier work, we engaged with a range of patient, public, community, professional and health policy groups who told us the following questions are the most important to them:
‘What is the uptake, safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines’: for the following groups:
- in pregnancy
- in children and young people
- when given as booster doses
- on disease caused by different variants
We will research the answers to the questions. The research will use linked datasets from across the UK. These will include general practitioner, vaccination, testing, viral sequencing, hospitalisation and death data. Trained, approved data analysts will have access to the data in secure and safe settings. This means people can be confident that health data is being accessed securely and privacy protected.
We will be able to replicate findings in different national data sources and pool results on up to 55 million people across the UK.
This work is beneficial to the public. Our patient and public involvement work has shown the importance of these questions. Our work will help to increase the confidence of the public in the COVID-19 vaccines.
We will continue to work with the UK’s Chief Medical Officers, Chief Scientific Advisers, and government and vaccine bodies—in particular, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency—so they are aware of our work and they will be ready to use our results to inform national decisions that benefit the public.
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