Filenews 1 March 2021
Italian doctors and other scientists announced that, according to their research among health experts who made the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus, obese people produced only about half of the antibodies in their body after the second dose, compared to those of their colleagues who had normal weight.
While it is premature to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of the vaccine in the obese, it probably means that people with obesity may need a third dose to ensure they have adequate protection against coronavirus, according to the British Guardian.
Previous studies have shown that obesity (body mass index above 30) increases the risk of death from Covid-19 by almost 50%, as well as the risk, after infection, of hospital admission by 113%. Partly this is because the obese often have other underlying diseases, such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes. Also, excessive thickness can bring about metabolic changes, such as inflammation and insulin resistance, which make it more difficult to fight Covid-19 infection from the patient's body.
Research in the past has shown that the flu vaccine has about half the effectiveness in the obese compared to those vaccinated with normal weight. The new study, pre-published in medRxiv (not yet published in a scientific journal), provides the first indications that something similar may be the case with the coronavirus vaccine - something that needs to be confirmed.
The researchers, led by the anosologist Dr. Aldo Venuti of the National Cancer Institute IRCCS "Regina Elena" in Rome, evaluated the production of antibodies after the second dose of vaccination of 248 health workers (158 women and 90 men). Seven days after the second dose, almost all (99.5%) had developed an immune response and the production of antibodies was more high in people who had passed Covid-19 infection previously, in young people and in women. But the immune system's reaction to the vaccine was reduced in overweight and obese people, compared to those who had a normal or lower-than-normal weight. The researchers concluded that "women, thin people and young people have an increased capacity for immune reactions compared to men, overweight and elderly".
"Since obesity is a serious risk factor for morbidity and mortality in Covid-19 patients," the researchers said, "it is necessary to design an effective vaccination program for this sub-group. Although further studies are needed, these early data may have significant implications for the development of vaccination strategies for Covid-19, especially for obese people. If our data are confirmed by larger studies, administration to the obese of an additional dose of the vaccine or a higher dose is among the options to be evaluated."
Professor of iosology Danny Altman of Imperial College London commented: "We have always known that body mass index was a huge predictor of reduced immune response to vaccines, so the new Italian study is clearly interesting, although it is based on a rather small preliminary sample. It confirms, however, that a vaccinated population is not necessarily synonymous with a population that is immune, especially in a country with high obesity, and therefore highlights the vital need for long-term immunity surveillance programmes.".
In a study in Brazilian health officials, Dr. Altman found that re-infection from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was more common among those with a high body mass index and that obese people produced fewer antibodies after the initial infection.
Source: protothema.gr
