According to Office of National Statistics (ONS) data, nine out of ten people have Covid antibodies. However, Dr Quinton Fivelman at the London Medical Laboratory is warning that the vaccine won’t work for one out of every hundred, leaving around 500,000 potentially at risk.
One of our biggest concerns regarding lifting restrictions in England is that we are pretty positive that not everyone will be immune from the virus. In what makes good headline news, the ONS Coronavirus Infection Survey has today revealed that more than 9 out of 10 (93.6%) of the UK’s adult population will have developed antibodies either through being vaccinated or via being infected in the past.
However, based on these statistics, and even with every UK adult being fully vaccinated, this potentially leaves up to 540,000 without sufficient antibodies.
If you want to learn more about antibodies and how to get your levels checked, Dr Quinton Fivelman, PhD, the Chief Scientific Officer at London Medical Laboratory, has authored the White Paper, Has your vaccine worked? Are you immune to Covid-19?.
He says, “Our research reveals that 1 in 100 fully vaccinated people fail to develop antibodies. People believe they are protected against Covid following both of their jabs and are living their lives accordingly, but a significant proportion is still as vulnerable as unvaccinated people. Following this data, businesses could be returning to pre-pandemic work routines with a misplaced sense of confidence in their staff’s antibody levels.
88% of adults have now had at least one jab and 72.5% two, but one in a hundred won’t develop antibodies against Covid-19. There are currently nearly 54m adults in the UK. Even if every single adult is fully vaccinated, 1% of them (540,000) won’t develop any antibodies following their jabs. Additionally, many people will produce very low antibody levels that may provide minimal protection for only a short period.
We need more testing of antibody levels among people who have been vaccinated to identify those individuals for whom the jab has not worked. This will be particularly important as we enter the winter months so we can determine which people may need booster shots.”
How you can get your antibody levels checked
People who are concerned about their antibody levels can arrange for testing at clinics, including the London Medical Laboratory; you’ll be able to find the right one for you via an internet search or by contacting your local surgery, which should be able to point you in the right direction.
The tests involve taking a blood sample via a finger prick and can be performed at home. The completed sample is then sent to your preferred laboratory who will then be able to confirm whether you’ve developed antibodies. The new generation of tests are said to be quick and straightforward to carry out and are highly accurate.
The ONS data should act as a warning to everyone, although their headline number would appear to be high, there are 100,000s of people still at risk, so our advice is to take nothing for granted.
Read more health-related articles here.