ECHO – A new OpenSAFELY study on COVID-19 vaccines

Last week, we started an 18-month project to better understand who received which COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, when they were received, and what impacts this has had on severe illness and death.

The project’s called Evaluating Covid-19 vaccine Histories using OpenSAFELY, or ECHO. It’s funded by the Research for Patient Benefit programme at the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and involves collaborators from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Bristol, and University of Bath. Read more about the project team below, and see our cheery faces above 🙂

The project launch coincides with the opening week of the Autumn 2024 COVID-19 booster vaccination programme, which will be incorporated into the planned analyses later next year.

We’ll use the OpenSAFELY platform to comprehensively describe COVID-19 vaccine histories, across the whole of England, from the start of the vaccination programme onwards. This includes vaccine timings, the intervals between successive vaccines, and the types and combinations of vaccines received in different groups of people.

We’ll also examine the relationship between COVID-19 vaccination history and patient characteristics, and whether different timings and intervals have measurable impacts on severe outcomes such as hospital visits and death.

The project brings together expertise in vaccination and public health, health data science and causal inference, as well as involvement from a panel of public representatives. If this is something you’d be interested in being part of, please drop us an email on team@opensafely.org.

You can read more on our project page on the OpenSAFELY website.

Project team

• Martina Pesce, Bennett Institute
• Will Hulme, Bennett Institute
• Ed Parker, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• Venexia Walker, University of Bristol
• Chris Wood, Bennett Institute
• Helen McDonald, University of Bath