BC-CfE researchers are working alongside colleagues from the University of British Columbia, Providence Health Care, and Simon Fraser University to investigate how elderly peoples’ immune systems respond to COVID-19 vaccines. The researchers will also assess the viral, immunological and social factors that have contributed to COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities in order to better understand why and how the disease has been fatal to so many residents.
Funded through the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, this critical research into BC’s long-term care facilities, will collect blood samples from long-term care residents before and again periodically after vaccination.
“We will use innovative and emerging laboratory tests to assess vaccine-induced immunity over time,” said Dr. Zabrina Brumme, Laboratory Director at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU, who is also one of the study’s co-Principal Investigators.
Principal Investigator Marc Romney, MD, Clinical Associate Professor at UBC and Medical Leader for Medical Microbiology and Virology at St. Paul’s Hospital, noted, “What we learn in this study will inform stakeholders on how best to protect individuals who live and work in long-term care facilities from COVID-19, prevent future outbreaks, and hopefully save lives.”