COVID-19 Immunology Study update

As you know, we’re working to understand how time, vaccination, and infection affect people’s immune responses to SARS CoV2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), along with researchers at the Kirby Institute.

What’s happened so far?

In early August 2022, we started inviting over 1,000 plasma donors who had donated between late 2019 and late 2021 — including you.

We sent 189 invites to convalescent plasma donors (that means their plasma has antibodies because they had COVID-19), and 945 to plasma donors with no recorded history of SARS-CoV2 infection. After our initial invitation, we sent reminders by email and SMS, and wow, you jumped at the chance to help! And, we learnt that text messages were the most effective way to prompt you to join the study or complete your survey.

Now, we have 472 plasma donors who have completed the first survey in the study, which is an incredible start to kick things off. Keep up the good work, because every participant counts, from start to finish.

Next steps

Thanks to all of you, at the end of November 2022, we shipped the first batch of over 3,000 plasma samples to the Kirby Institute so Professor Stuart Turville and his team can start work in the labs. Keep an eye on your inbox for a preview of what they find out.

For some donors, the COVID-19 vaccination details were incomplete. If that’s you, we’ll be in touch to try fill in the missing dates or names of vaccines.

Look out for your second survey next February!