WOKINGHAM’S World Health Organisation disease spread expert is working on a vital new stage in the battle against Covid-19.
Professor Ben Cowling, who went to Sonning Primary School, is studying strength and duration of immunity provided by two of the world’s leading vaccines. One of them is widely used in the UK.
He wants to find out if or when booster doses of vaccines might be necessary.
When the UK had just two cases of Covid-19 early in February 2020, Professor Cowling predicted the start of a UK epidemic in early March. He also warned of a real risk to world health from covid. He was proved right on both.
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At the time he had just finished ground breaking work on China’s early cases.
Professor Cowling, based at Hong Kong University, explained his new work: “I’m studying strength and duration of immunity provided by the BioNTech vaccine and the Sinovac vaccine which is an inactivated virus vaccine produced in China.”
The BioNTech vaccine distributed by Pfizer in the UK is an important part of the covid fight here.
He added: “Right now we are still aiming to get vaccine coverage up to a high level, but fairly soon our attention will turn to the possibility that booster doses might be needed – maybe not this year, but at some point.
“My research is aiming to determine if or when booster doses might be necessary, and how well different choices of booster doses might work.”
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The Hong Kong government is backing his research.
On the May 17 covid rules easing he said last week: “I think when we look back it will turn out to be about the right time to start opening up. Vaccination coverage is now high enough that a third wave could not have as large a health impact as the first and second waves.
“Waiting for longer before easing would reduce the risk of a resurgence in infections that would be mainly mild, but I think a lot of people and a lot of businesses have been eagerly waiting for the opportunity to get going again.”
He was concerned there could be a resurgence in daily case numbers, although with such a high vaccine coverage in the most vulnerable groups it was likely that most infections would be mild.
There might not be rises in hospitalisations or deaths even if daily case numbers increased.
