The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine may be less effective in people with obesity, according to a new study by Italian researchers.
What is happening?
Italian researchers recently discovered in new data that health care workers with obesity produce about half of the antibodies from a second stitch compared to healthy people, reports The Guardian.
- “Although it is too early to know what this means for the effectiveness of the vaccine, it may imply that people with obesity need an additional booster dose to ensure they are adequately protected against coronavirus,” according to The Guardian.
Obesity has led to an increased risk of death due to COVID-19 – this is one of the reasons why it is one of the medical problems you can get the vaccine in Utah.
According to The Guardian, the risk of obesity with COVID-19 may be one reason why the vaccine may be ineffective.
- ‘Some of this may be because people with obesity often have other underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes, which increase their risk of coronavirus, but excess body fat can also cause metabolic changes, such as insulin resistance and inflammation. , which makes it more difficult for the body to fight infections. ”
Get the vaccine
Experts still encourage those with obesity to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they qualify in their condition. Dr. Fatima Stanford, an obesity physician, told NPR that obesity is a good measure to determine potential risk factors.
- Those with obesity who are not vaccinated are at increased risk for serious COVID-19 diseases.
- ‘We’m talking about two inflammatory conditions. “We have chronic inflammation associated with obesity, the disease that does not play well with the acute inflammatory process of COVID-19,” said Stanford, who works at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.