A study in the New England Medical Journal (NEJM) is the latest in a series of research showing that a dose of a coronavirus vaccine provides COVID-19 survivors as much protection as two doses offer people who never they have not been infected.
“These findings suggest that a single dose of vaccine elicits a very rapid immune response in people who have tested positive for COVID-19,” said co-author of the study and renowned Mount Sinai vaccinologist Dr. Florian Krammer.
“In fact, this first dose is immunologically similar to the (second) booster dose in people who have not been infected.”
But Dr. Anthony Fauci and U.S. health officials have insisted that everyone receive two doses of vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer.
So why not give people who have had COVID-19 a single shot, instead of two?
An expert told DailyMail.com that now that the U.S. has more doses of vaccine available from three manufacturers, the process of testing people to see if they have previously had coronavirus would probably only create a “bottleneck” in the deployment process, rather than stretching the supply to protect more people faster.
Mount Sinai researchers found that people who had previously been infected with coronavirus (yellow) had antibody levels 10 to 20 times higher than the first dose compared to post-first dose levels in people who did not. they had COVID-19 (blue).
At least 29 million Americans have already had coronavirus.
Giving them just one shot instead of two could mean an additional 29 million doses for the hundreds of millions of Americans who have never had the virus and developed immunity to it, or enough to completely vaccinate 14.5 million people. .
The scientists behind the new study, published Wednesday, also think their research may shed some light on who is likely to have a more dramatic reaction to vaccines and why.
Dr. Krammer, Viviana Simon, and colleagues studied about 240 people in total.
The first group consisted of 109 people, about half of whom had coronavirus antibodies in their blood, meaning they had been previously infected and had developed some immunity to the infection.
Antibodies begin to form in anyone who gets a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but it usually takes weeks to peak after the first dose, and a second dose is still needed to increase the antibodies to levels of COVID-19. optimal protection.
In the study, participants who tested positive for COVID-19 had antibody levels ten to twenty times higher in the blood within a few days of the first dose.
When they got their second dose, the antibody levels in the group were ten times higher than those who had not been previously infected (but had also had the second shot).
In other words, coronavirus survivors had approximately the same level of immunity after a single dose as people who had never had coronavirus but received two doses of vaccine.
Just as the first dose acts as a “primary” for people with negative covides, scientists suspect that a previous infection boosts the immune system and that the second dose makes it completely fast to fight coronavirus infection.
People whose immune systems were already “ready” to respond to the coronavirus due to a previous infection (yellow) were much more likely to have side effects from the traits, especially systemic effects such as fatigue, headaches, fevers, and pain. muscular or articular
The study also offered a potential clue as to why some people do not show significant reactions to COVID-19 vaccination, while others are left with red tips, sore arms and may be resting for days after the second shots. .
The 83 survivors of COVID-19 from a subgroup of 231 study participants were much more likely to have arm pain, swelling, and redness, as well as more systemic effects such as fatigue, headache, chills, and muscle aches. articular.
Does this mean that people who had severe reactions to the shot before had had COVID-19, potentially unknowingly? Not necessarily, but this could be the case for some.
Researchers at Mount Sinai went so far as to suggest that the detection of antibodies against coronavirus for potential vaccine recipients could extend the supply of vaccines and reduce the proportion of people suffering from more significant side effects.
“If the screening process determines the presence of antibodies due to a previous infection, a second shot of the coronavirus vaccine may not be necessary for the individual,” Dr. Simon said.
“And if this approach translates into public health policies, it could not only expand the limited supply of vaccines, but control the most frequent and pronounced reactions to vaccines experienced by COVID-19 survivors.”
The United Kingdom ran ahead of the United States in the first days of launching their respective vaccines. The British received shots at a faster rate at first, thanks to several factors, including the fact that they approved vaccines earlier and had a more cohesive logistics system (in a smaller country).
But the nation also took a single-dose experimental approach, allowing the British to delay their second doses of Moderna or Pfizer shots by up to 12 weeks, focusing instead on getting a first dose and a little protection to as many people as possible, as fast as possible.
U.S. officials have rejected the program, despite increasing evidence that a single dose provides considerable protection.
And now it is possible that the plan suggested by Dr. Simon has lost its opportunity to be useful.
“We are now on track to have a comprehensive supply … so I don’t think the FDA is inclined” to adopt the scheme suggested by the findings of the Mount Sinai team, president of the Peter’s Center for Public Interest Medicine Pitts told DailyMail.com.
They are expected to get 15.8 million doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines this week.
The demand for eligible people who exceed supply is becoming less problematic.
And Pitts is concerned that the strategy of detecting antibodies to people before vaccinating them may keep the process of getting doses in their arms, which is already a considerable barrier.
Quoting twentieth-century journalist and satirist HL Mencken, Pitts said, “For every complex problem there is a simple solution that is wrong;” I think the scientists at Mount Sinai have fallen into this trap, because that would create a big bottleneck. ”