Whether or not there is lasting immunity to COVID-19, induced by either vaccination or natural exposure, was a critical outstanding question in the COVID-19 pandemic. If the vaccines deployed in the UK fail(ed) to generate sufficient lasting immunity to either interrupt transmission or take the burden off acute health services, it will be essential to determine which measurable immune factors correlate with protection. This knowledge will form the basis of second-generation vaccine design and implementation policies, and will also inform future lockdown, shielding and vaccination policy, by identifying who is protected from re-infection and who is not.

A key component to developing this understanding why some people experience vaccine breakthrough infections (new infections 14 days or more after their second COVID-19 vaccine), two or more infections (3 or more months apart) or fail to mount an antibody response following vaccination or natural infection. Understanding the mechanisms underpinning these events of interest, requires clinical, immune and genetic assessment and testing which was undertaken by the VIBRANT study and collaborators within the wider SIREN consortium. VIBRANT investigated for known and unknown underlying health conditions through a clinical health screening questionnaire and clinical sampling. VIBRANT also investigated immune and genomic signatures or biomarkers that are associated with vaccine failure. To do this VIBRANT integrated with several national platform studies (UKCIC, SIREN, ISARIC4C/PHOSP, COG-UK, and HICC) which are collectively addressing the question of whether immune responses contribute to protection against re-infection.

Main Funding Body