For people who survived a previous encounter with covid-19, a single dose of mRNA vaccine may be needed for complete protection, research released Wednesday suggests. The findings add weight to the idea proposed by some experts that survivors should receive a single shot to help expand the vaccine supply.
Researchers at Mount Sinai have been studying the ins and outs of coronavirus immunity since the beginning of the pandemic. Their previous works, for example, had suggested that natural immunity to infection tends to be robust and lasts at least six months in most survivors. However, it is still an area of active research and Rinfection is possible. And many who survived covid-19 would be at higher risk for serious illness if they were unlikely to catch it and get sick again. Both doctors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to recommend that all those eligible for vaccination receive it, even if they have already endured covid-19.
While vaccine launches have steadily improved since December last year, only about 19% of the US received at least one dose and less than 10% were completely vaccinated. In the hope of speeding up vaccination efforts, some scientists have done so supported that covid-19 survivors should be told to receive a single dose of similar vaccines Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech. UUntil recently, they were only vaccines available in the country. However, other experts have warned that we still do not know if these people would be as well protected as everyone else receiving the standard two-dose course.
To help solve this question, Mount Sinai researchers examined 109 previously uninfected volunteers who had either been completely vaccinated or were survivors (confirmed by antibody testing), who at that time had received a single dose of each mRNA vaccine. In another group of 231 people, they compared the level of adverse reactions reported between survivors and uninfected people after vaccination.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that survivors given a dose had a similar and often higher antibody response to coronavirus than those fully vaccinated. Survivors also tended 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 similar levels to people after receiving the two full doses. Because these side effects are usually a sign of the body’s immune system learning how to recognize the virus, this is also suggested by single-shot survivors who continue to enjoy as much covid-19 protection as everyone else who I receive two doses.
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“For this reason, we believe that a single dose of vaccine is sufficient for people who have already been infected with SARS-CoV-2 to reach immunity,” said study author Viviana Simon, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Medicine. at Mount Icahn School of Medicine in Sinai, in a statement released by the university.
The findings of the study were initial freed to the public at the beginning of last month as a preliminary work on the medRxiv website. At the time, they were notable enough for the director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, to do so. write about them. Although Collins favorably discussed the study, which was funded by the NIH, he also stressed that we will need to see other studies that support the same conclusion before there is likely to be any official change in Food and Drug guidelines. Administration or CDC. The new study does not weighs the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine that uses a different technology to boost covid-19 immunity and what it could mean for covid-19 survivors.
If this data appears, it could go a long way in expanding our vaccine supply. No one is sure yet, but from 20% to 30% of the country has already had covid-19. And, although access to the vaccine is getting better, any small increase in speed would help a lot.