Virologist Angela Rasmussen, PhD
Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines
Ensuring the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines will play a key role in promoting public health, including prioritization of the more vulnerable populations if vaccine availability is limited and assessing sufficient and durable protection, as well as building and promoting public confidence.
In clinical practice, serology testing is necessary to know whether vaccination resulted in seroconversion and a sustained response in each person, especially for high-risk/high-exposure people. Clinical serology testing is relatively low cost and high throughput, with fast turnaround and broad population access. This testing will be necessary to confirm seroconversion and a sustained response of neutralizing antibody.
Key Learning Objectives
- Learn how serology testing can help prioritize vaccine resources and inform long-term vaccination strategy
- Understand how serology testing can be used to establish a threshold for protection or immunity
- Know how to use serology to confirm an initial neutralizing antibody response shortly after vaccination and track antibody levels over time to assess duration of protection