Hedges Politically speaking

I WELCOME the work done by the British Society for Immunology and the information they have produced regarding the current state of Covid-19 immunity, transmission and deaths.

The British Society for Immunology is the leading UK charity organisation representing scientists and clinicians who study the immune system in humans or animals.

As a membership organisation, it acts for and with the immunology community, supporting and empowering immunologists working in academic, industry and clinical settings to drive forward scientific discovery and application together.

It was relentless work by scientists collaborating across academia, government and industry that led to the UK being the first country in the world to be able to roll out a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine.

But there remain many unknown factors about Covid-19 immunity which we are still learning about. For example, being able to measure the effectiveness of administering different vaccines to individuals and assessing the longevity of the immunity that the vaccines confer will be crucial to determining the need for and timing of future booster vaccination programmes.

Covid-19 vaccines have had a major effect on transmission and infections, hospitalisations and deaths from Covid.

ONS data shows that between January 2 and September 24, 2021, the age-adjusted risk of deaths involving Covid-19 was 32 times greater in unvaccinated people than in fully vaccinated individuals.

Put simply, you are 32 times more likely to die of Covid if you are unvaccinated.