The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may be less effective in people with obesity, according to data from a study conducted by Italian researchers.
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According to the results of the study, their level of antibodies, after two doses of vaccine, was half the amount of antibodies found in healthy people.
Although it is too early to know what this means for the vaccine’s effectiveness, it could mean that obese people need an extra dose of the vaccine to ensure immunization.
Previous research has suggested that obesity – which is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) above 30 – increases the risk of dying from Covid-19 by almost 50%, and increases the risk of getting to the hospital by 113%, write observatornews.ro.
Some of these may be due to the fact that people with obesity often have other underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes. Excess body fat can also cause metabolic changes, such as insulin resistance and inflammation. , which makes it difficult for the body to fight infections.
This constant state of low-grade inflammation can also weaken certain immune responses, including those released by B and T cells that trigger a protective response after vaccination.
Separate research has shown that the flu vaccine is only half as effective in people who are obese as in those who do not have weight problems.
The new study, which has not yet been reviewed by external sources, provides the first direct evidence to suggest that such problems may occur with Covid vaccines.
Aldo Venuti, from the Istituti Fisioterapici Ospitalieri in Rome, and his colleagues evaluated the antibody response after two doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to 248 health workers. Seven days after receiving the second dose, 99.5% of them developed an antibody response, and this response was higher than that of those who recovered from Covid-19.
However, the response was low in people who were overweight and obese.
“Because obesity is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality for patients with Covid-19, it is imperative that we plan an effective vaccination program in this subgroup,” wrote Aldo and colleagues.
“Although further studies are needed, these data may have important implications for the development of vaccination strategies for Covid-19, especially in obese individuals. If our data were confirmed by larger studies, providing obese people with an extra dose of vaccine or a higher dose could be options to be evaluated in this population, “said Aldo Venuti.
In a separate study of Brazilian health workers, Altmann and colleagues showed that reinfection with Sars-CoV-2 was also more common among people with a high body mass index and that they tended to have lower antibody responses to the initial infection.
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