Experts query data after antibodies fall in older people

THE number of older people with antibodies to coronavirus has fallen, according to the Office for National Statistics despite the ongoing rollout, leading experts to question whether the data could now be trusted.

Yesterday, figures from the ONS antibody swab survey showed that 54.9 per cent of people in private households in England were likely to have tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies in the week to March 28, largely unchanged since the middle of March. During those two weeks, nearly seven million more people have had their first dose of vaccine in the UK, and millions of older people received a second jab, which should have boosted immunity further.

Yet the new figures show that levels of antibodies have dropped by nearly 10 per cent in the over-70s during that period. Experts have now called for the ONS to publish the underlying data on which the prevalence estimates are based, and release details of the sensitivity of the antibody tests used.