People who have previously had the new novel coronavirus react strongly to a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of when they were infected and whether they had any visible antibodies. against the disease before they gained protection, according to a study. .
Researchers from Bar-Ilan University and Ziv Medical Center in Israel noted that world evidence for the COVID-19 vaccine remains scarce even though the clinical trial data are encouraging.
In particular, the response to the COVID-19 vaccine among those previously infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus is not yet fully understood, they said.
The latest study, published in the journal Eurosurveillance, was conducted on a group of 514 employees at Ziv Medical Center.
Seventeen of the participants were infected with COVID-19 at any time between one and ten months before receiving the first dose of the vaccine.
Antibody levels of the whole group were measured before and after vaccination to determine a response to the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine developed by the US company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
The response among the former was so effective that it opens up the debate over whether a single dose of the vaccine may be enough, the researchers said.
” This finding can help countries make informed decisions about vaccine policy – for example, whether those who have previously had the vaccine should be given priority and, if so, by how many doses, ” ’said Professor Michael Edelstein, of Bar-Ilan University, who led the study.
It also reassures us that losing visible antibodies after being infected does not mean defending post – infection, ” Edelstein said.
The study also provides evidence that there was a similar immune response across multi-ethnic groups in that workers are made up of Jews, Arabs and Druze, among others, at Ziv Medical Center, where whether the study was conducted.
The researchers noted that members of each of these groups responded very similarly to the first dose of the vaccine, a welcome finding considering that some more known groups are known to be affected by the virus itself. bigger than the others.
The strong response to a single dose of the vaccine among previous ones is good news regardless of the time between infection and vaccination, they said.
However, the researchers insist that their results should be tested in a larger cohort before reaching definitive conclusions.
The team follows health care workers after their second dose to better understand how long the vaccine protects against COVID-19 in different groups of people.
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff and is automatically extracted from syndicated feedings.)