Covid-19: Oxford University coronavirus vaccine triggers robust immune response in older age groups

The coronavirus vaccine developed by teams at the University of Oxford has been shown to trigger a robust immune response in healthy adults aged 56-69 and those over 70 years of age. The findings published in ‘Lancet’ on Thursday based on 560 healthy adult volunteers shows that the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine is ‘safe and well tolerated’ with a lower reactogenicity profile in older adults than in younger adults, meaning the older age groups could build immunity to the disease. ‘These findings are encouraging because older individuals are at disproportionate risk of severe Covid-19 and so any vaccine adopted for use against SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] must be effective in older adults,’ the researchers note. The team is also testing whether the vaccine stops people developing Covid-19 in larger Phase 3 trials and early results from this crucial stage are expected in the coming weeks.