Will COVID-19 vaccines work on a weak immune system?
Probably not as well as in healthy people, but they should offer some degree of protection.
This is why vaccination is recommended for people with weakened immune systems due to illness or medication. It is also important that your family, friends, and caregivers get immunized, which will reduce the chance that they will transmit the virus to you.
About 3% of American adults have weakened immune systems. They include those with HIV or AIDS, transplant recipients, some cancer patients, and others with autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and lupus.
Vaccines against COVID-19 have not been studied in large numbers of people in this situation. But limited data and experience with flu and pneumonia suggests they won’t work as well as in the rest of the population. This means that those affected must continue to take precautions such as wearing a mask and avoiding large crowds.
“It is wise to take all the precautions that were being taken before being vaccinated,” said Dr. Ajit Limaye, a transplant expert at Washington Medical University in Seattle.
Although most cancer patients should be vaccinated as soon as possible, those who receive a stem cell transplant or CAR T-cell therapy should wait at least three months after completing treatment to be immunized, according to guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. This delay will ensure that the drugs work as well as possible.
For transplant recipients, researchers are studying whether an extra dose could make the vaccine more effective.
In France, a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is recommended in immunosuppressed patients, including organ recipients. Israel recently began giving an extra injection of the one developed by Pfizer-BioNTech to transplants and others with weak immune systems. In the United States, some seek a third dose on their own in hopes of greater protection even though the federal government has not authorized the extraordinary vaccination.
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