For people who survived a previous encounter with covid-19, just one dose of an mRNA vaccine may be needed for complete protection, suggests research released on Wednesday. The findings add weight to the idea proposed by some experts that survivors should receive only one injection in order to help stretch the vaccine supply.
Mount Sinai researchers have been studying the intricacies of immunity to coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic. Your previous work, for example, has suggested that natural immunity to infection tends to be robust and lasts at least six months in most survivors. It is still an area of active research, however, and reinfection is possible. And many who survived covid-19 are at an increased risk of serious illness if they are unlikely enough to catch it and get sick again. Both doctors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommend that all candidates for vaccination should receive it, even if they have already endured the vaccine 19.
Although vaccine release has improved steadily since last December, only about 19% of the US received at least one dose and less than 10% were fully vaccinated. In the hope of accelerating vaccination efforts, some scientists have argued that covid-19 survivors should be instructed to receive only one dose of the similar Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines. youuntil recently, they were the only vaccines available in the country. However, other experts have warned that we still don’t know whether these people would be as protected as everyone else who receives standard two-dose treatment.
To help address this issue, researchers at Mount Sinai analyzed 109 previously uninfected volunteers who had either been fully vaccinated or were survivors (confirmed by antibody tests) who at the time had received only one dose of each of the mRNA vaccines . In another group of 231 people, they compared the level of reported side effects between survivors and uninfected people after vaccination.
The study, Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that survivors who received a dose had a similar and often higher antibody response to coronavirus than those who were fully vaccinated. Survivors also tend to experience side effects such as pain at the site of infection or fatigue more often after the first dose, compared to uninfected people after the first dose, but at levels similar to those of people after receiving both full doses. Since these side effects are often a sign that the body’s immune system is learning to recognize the virus, it also suggests that survivors who receive only one injection are still receiving as much protection from covid-19 as all others who receive it. the two doses.
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“For this reason, we believe that a single dose of the vaccine is sufficient for people who have already been infected with SARS-CoV-2 to achieve immunity,” said study author Viviana Simon, professor in the Department of Microbiology and Medicine at Mount Icahn School of Medicine of Sinai, in a demonstration launched by the university.
The study’s findings were originally released to the public at the beginning of last month as a preliminary article on the medRxiv website. At the time, they were notable enough for the director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, to Write about them. Although Collins discussed the study, which was funded by the NIH, favorably, he also pointed out that it would be necessary to see other studies supporting the same conclusion before there was likely to be any official change in the orientation of the Food and Drug Administration or CDC. The new study did not weigh in on the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine that uses a different technology to boost covid-19’s immunity and what it might mean for covid-19 survivors.
If that data comes up, it could well expand our supply of vaccines. No one is sure yet, but anywhere from 20% to 30% of the country already had covid-19. And although access to the vaccine is improving, any small increase in speed would help a lot.