CCOUC Director Professor Emily Chan participated in the World Health Organization ad hoc consultation on COVID-19 vaccines – Methodological approaches to assess variants effect on vaccine effects via Zoom on 11 February 2021, which introduced current WHO efforts to set up a mechanism to provide guidance to developers/manufacturers and countries and to coordinate changes that might be needed for vaccines.

It also discussed the most robust methodological approaches to assess if a circulating new COVID variant has an impact on vaccine effect, and the research approaches that could be considered when assessing vaccines that have been adjusted to address vaccine efficacy issues with new variants.

The consultation covered generating randomized evidence for vaccines, conducting observational studies during vaccine deployment and research to support evaluation of efficacy and effectiveness of new vaccines against variants.