LONDON — The United Kingdom has launched a new clinical trial, giving thousands of volunteers a booster COVID-19 vaccine, the UK's Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced on Wednesday. The Cov-Boost study, led by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and backed by19.3 million pounds ($27.3 approximately) of government funding through the Vaccines Taskforce, will trial seven vaccines and will be the first in the world to provide vital data on the impact of a third dose on patients' immune responses, the UK government said in a press statement. The study will give scientists from around the globe and the experts behind the UK's COVID-19 vaccination program a better idea of the impact of a booster dose of each vaccine in protecting individuals from the virus. The study will cover England, Wales and Scotland and will include a total of 2,886 patients and participants are to begin being vaccinated from early June. All participants will be monitored throughout the study for any side effects and will have bloods taken to measure their immune responses at days 28, 84, 308 and 365, with a small number having additional blood tests at other times, according to the statement. Announcing the launch of the study, Hancock, said: "I urge everyone who has had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and is eligible, to sign up for this study and play a part in protecting the most vulnerable people in this country and around the world for months and years to come." He also said that the trial will look at seven different COVID-19 vaccines as potential boosters, given at least 10 to 12 weeks after a second dose as part of the ongoing vaccination program. One booster will be provided to each volunteer and could be a different brand to the one they were originally vaccinated with. According to the health secretary, vaccines being trialed include Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Novavax, Valneva, Janssen and Curevac, as well as a control group. The trial has received ethics approval by the NHS Research Ethics Committee, as well as approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Participants will be adults aged 30 years or older as these will have been those immunized early on in the vaccination program — for example, adults aged 75 and over or health and care workers.
