27 October 2021- Why are Neutralising Antibody tests important now? 

Being prone to more frequent infections may mean that you have a weak immune system. With everything going on in the world, including COVID-19, this is important information that you need to know about yourself. As it stands, the pace of the vaccine booster rollout has slowed down and priority is given to people who are most vulnerable from developing a COVID-19 infection. This will offer those individuals the fullest protection against the virus this winter.  According to John Roberts, from the COVID-19 Actuaries Response Group, “At the start of the booster campaign, the health secretary Sajid Javid said: ‘We will protect the most vulnerable through the winter months’. But at the current rate it is going to be well through winter before we get through those first groups.”  This was stated on a BBC news article. (1)

This leads into the question that everybody is wondering…. Do we really need the booster vaccine? Infectious diseases expert, Professor Angus Dalgleish has commented during an interview on Good morning Britain that we should try another strategy.  A strategy where we should test people’s immunity first to see if they need the booster vaccine. He stated, “It should not be difficult for one test to see what your immune response to your last vaccine is or if you have had very bad COVID, have you got a good immune response and do you need the booster”. (2)

Laith Jamal Abu-Raddad, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar in Doha has also stated in an article from Nature that “Wasting resources on boosters for those who are already protected against severe disease does not really make too much sense,” (3)

The Randox SARS-CoV-2 Neutralising Antibody tests detects antibody levels post-vaccination to determine eligibility for a booster vaccination. These tests utilise patented biochip technology to detect neutralising antibodies to the Wuhan and Delta SARS-CoV-2 variants. There is a need for tests of this kind to provide an accurate estimate of immunity, monitor vaccine effectiveness and the frequency of post-vaccine breakthrough infections with variants of concern. Recent studies indicate that the delta variant is capable of re-infection even in fully vaccinated individuals and that a significant proportion of fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections can transmit the virus to others.

The SARS-CoV-2 Neutralising Antibody tests are a quick and effective way to determine: