Jabs Offer Opportunities

Getting vaccinated not only protects yourself and your loved ones, but also helps one to overcome fear of the unknown. Moreover, it offers an invaluable opportunity to boost scientific research in the community.

The University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health is conducting several research projects on COVID-19 vaccines.

The projects aim to answer more questions on vaccine efficacy, side effects in different populations and different vaccine regiments, such as having three doses or mixing of the vaccines.

One of the project leaders, Prof Benjamin Cowling, has set up designated spots inside the community vaccination centre operated by the university’s Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine to collect blood samples from voluntary candidates to conduct research on vaccine efficacy.

He said the project aims to follow up on more than 1,000 people who receive either the BioNTech vaccine or the Sinovac vaccine. People can register at the centre to provide blood samples and other information that researchers need.

Researchers will obtain blood samples from these people at the first dose, second dose, after six months, after 12 months and at two and three years, to monitor how immunity changes over time.

Keeping it local

“In Hong Kong, we are one of the few places in the world that are using both an mRNA vaccine and an inactivated vaccine. We can see how the vaccines are performing in Hong Kong, because we cannot take it for granted that the kinds of immune response, the side effects and so on will be the same everywhere in the world. There may be differences for genetic reasons or whatever. So it is really important to have local data,” Prof Cowling said.

The blood samples will then be sent to the university’s laboratories. After filing and labelling, the blood will be separated out into a clot splitting the red cells from the clear fluid called serum. Researchers will then carry out multiple tests on the serum to see the level of antibodies from patients and changes of efficacy of the vaccines as time passes.

More than a jab centre

The vaccination centre also provides a hands-on learning experience for university students as they have a chance to interact with those being vaccinated.

Hong Kong University Health System Director Dr Victoria Wong, who is in charge of the operation of the vaccination centre, said the university provides a platform for their medical and nursing students to acquire clinical experience.

They work under the supervision of doctors and nurses to take medical history from people receiving their jabs and provide them with vaccine information.

If necessary, the students will also perform simple procedures such as checking blood pressure to make sure that the recipients are stable and reassure them before and after vaccination.

“Very often recipients are anxious when they come to receive their vaccines. So the students will spend a lot of time reassuring them, providing them with useful information and answering all their questions,” Dr Wong said.

Students Mr Au and Mr Go both serve as voluntary helpers at the centre. They work in the public education area to help those getting their jabs and explain the ingredients, mechanisms and what recipients should be aware of.

They said the task is challenging but it is an irreplaceable learning experience to groom them for their future careers.

“We have learnt how to use our communication skills and how to modify our communication styles to suit different citizens, because every citizen has their concerns and also they may have different lifestyles,” Mr Go said.