AOS Alumna Leads UK Covid-19 Vaccine Trial
Former Alice Ottley pupil, Andrea Collins (1990-97) is leading the work in Liverpool for the Phase 3 Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Study. After her time at The Alice Ottley School, Andrea continued her education, graduating in Medicine from Bristol University followed by postgraduate training in general medicine in Exeter, before moving to the North West of England to pursue her specialism of Respiratory medicine. Andrea now works at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) as Senior Clinical Lecturer and is an Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Infection at the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Andrea explained about the trial and what it aims to achieve: “This double blind randomised controlled study was the first Phase 3 COVID vaccine (ChADOx1 ncov-19) study to begin in the UK. The pace of the study has been incredible. I normally work in pneumonia vaccine research and things do not move so fast, but with a pandemic every organisation works together in the same direction, for the same purpose. We were selected as a UK site in May, so I stopped working as a frontline respiratory Consultant in Aintree Hospital in Liverpool and began recruiting other frontline health and social care workers into this study. Liverpool alone will conduct over 7000 visits for this study.
We vaccinated the final participant to enter the study in November 2020 and are delighted to be the top National recruiting site to the healthy volunteer groups age 18-70+, recruiting nearly 900 participants. Well over 10,000 participants were recruited across the UK, Brazil and South Africa for this trial. Initial data on immunity looks very favorable, we are expecting the vaccine safety and efficacy data any day now. If the trial demonstrates this vaccine is safe and effective, we can start vaccinating the UK population immediately after MHRA approvals, since millions of doses have already been produced for the UK.
It has been an honour to be able to make a vital contribution to this pivotal clinical trial; we are hopeful that this vaccine will have a massive impact by saving millions of lives not only in the UK, but also globally, after all a pandemic is an international issue and so an affordable vaccine for the whole world is paramount. I am delighted that COVID vaccinations can hopefully start in December 2020 in the UK and that we have an assured vaccine supply chain in the UK. We plan to begin our next COVID vaccine trial in Liverpool in January 2021.”
To read more about Andrea’s work and time at the School please visit the RGS Worcester and Alice Ottley Foundation website.
Scott MacDonald
Foundation Director
