A study involving people previously infected with COVID-19 suggests that the immune response to illness may act as the administration of a first dose of these double vaccines.
None of the tests carried out with the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines tested them on people who had already been infected with the coronavirus. Now, a study involving people previously infected with COVID-19 suggests that the immune response when falling ill may act as the administration of a first dose of these double vaccines.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine believe that their findings may help inform decisions about how to make the most of the limited vaccine stock.
“With a single dose, healthcare professionals who had previously taken COVID had a really strong response,” said study co-author Dr. Anthony Harris, professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The immune response of people previously infected was similar to the response typically seen in a second dose of vaccination.
“This strong response would suggest that in a time of vaccine shortage, perhaps these are the people who should receive a single dose vaccine,” he said.
A second evidence-based suggestion is that if vaccines are scarce, people who have already taken COVID-19 may be downgraded to priority lists according to Harris and co-author of the study, Dr. Mohammad Sajadi, associate professor of medicine from U.Md .’s School of Medicine, a medical scientist from the Institute of Human Virology and a member of the Global Virus Network.
Harris also notes that a recently released UK study suggests that the immune response after falling ill with COVID-19 protects people for at least six months.
The practice of suspending booster doses for the second dose is already underway in Canada and the United Kingdom, where Harris believes that the science behind vaccine testing combined with the science behind his study data can be useful for implanting a successful strategy in the context of limited supplies.
“I would say that if you are already using a single dose – go for a single dose for people who have already had COVID infection and give two doses to your highest-risk population who have not taken COVID,” said Harris.
The University of Maryland study was very small, but Harris said the findings were not unexpected because the way vaccines generally work is to augment previous responses.
“Although the sample size is small – and our study definitely needs to be replicated because we had only 59 health professionals – the differences are so dramatic that statistical significance was easily achieved,” said Harris.
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