“For this paper, researchers studied blood samples from 202 staff and 286 residents in care homes to investigate their antibody and cellular immune responses following COVID-19 vaccination. Blood sampling was carried out between December 2020 and June 2021.

Results

Antibody responses following dual vaccination in both staff (younger than 65 years) and residents (older than 65 years) with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection were strong and similar across all age groups.

Antibody responses were just over 8 times (8.1) lower in elderly residents who had not had prior natural SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to those with previous infection. In contrast these values were just under 2 and a half times (2.4) lower in care home staff, suggesting that younger age may help to overcome this effect.
This means that care home residents without prior infection had just over 2 and a half times (2.6) lower antibody response than the younger staff.

Cellular immunity is also thought to be important in controlling disease severity. Spike-specific T cell responses were seen to be 52% lower in residents without prior natural infection compared to those who had previously had a natural infection.

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