People who have had COVID-19 may need to be vaccinated only once, according to studies

Six recent studies suggest that people who have already come down with COVID-19 may not need to receive a second dose of vaccine.

The federal government has not changed its recommendation for a second dose, but studies looking at the immune response show that although a first shot gives people recovering from COVID-19 a big boost, the second shot makes little difference .

“I think it makes perfect sense,” says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccination for Vaccination at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.

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For someone who has had COVID-19, the first shot is like a COVID-19 naive person getting a booster – they even have the side effects of someone getting a second dose of vaccine, he said.

“You can reasonably argue that people who can prove to be infected – that is, have antibodies to the virus – can only get just one dose,” Offit said.

Florian Krammer, who led one of the recent studies, was in no danger of getting a second chance for someone who had COVID-19. It may offer no benefit to the time and stress required to book, go to and from a vaccination site and watch the needle enter.

And every person who does not need a second shot means a first shot for someone else.

The challenge is to determine who does not need the second dose, he and others said.

“Implementation may not be that easy,” said Krammer, a professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai in New York.

Anyone who has received a formal diagnosis of COVID-19 – not just people who have felt bad for a few days and assumed they had it – or people with antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19 may have ‘ a second shot left over.

Last spring, antibody tests were not always reliable, Krammer said, but those still on the market are good, although it is still not clear whether a specific level of antibody is needed to protect.

Antibody tests, also known as serology tests, detect proteins made by the immune system in response to an infection.

According to Krammer’s study, published earlier this month but not yet peer-reviewed, a person who has been previously infected and who gets his first shot has a similar immune response to someone who has COVID-19 had not yet, received the second time. They even have the side effects of a second shot with their first shot.

And the second shot offers little extra protection, the study found.

“The policy of giving only one dose of vaccine to these individuals would have a negative effect on their antibody titers, saving them from unnecessary pain and releasing very urgently needed vaccine doses,” he concluded.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, wrote in his weekly blog about the study.

“Although much more research is needed – and I certainly do not suggest a change in current recommendations – the results raise the possibility that one dose may be enough for someone infected with SARS-CoV-2 and all generated antibodies against the virus, ‘Collins wrote.

“But any serious consideration of this option will require more information. It will also have to take the expert advisers of the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to decide,” he added.

How much more data or what kind of information would be enough to convince regulators is not clear.

More: Why is COVID-19 vaccinated if you still have to wear a mask? It is better to get sick, say health experts

Another of the new studies, a preview of the University of Maryland, showed that 41 health workers who recovered from COVID-19 had more antibodies after their first shot than 69 of their peers who did not contract the virus.

And a preview of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that blood from people who recovered from COVID-19 was not so good at neutralizing the original virus or variant that originated in South Africa. as blood of people who have recovered and been vaccinated. . Three other studies had similar findings.

Each of the six studies released to the public this month looks at the issue differently, but ‘they all actually show the same thing,’ Krammer said, ‘they confirm each other.’

Contact Karen Weintraub at [email protected].

Health and Patient Safety Coverage in USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

© Damian Dovarganes / AP
Health workers in Los Angeles administer COVID-19 vaccinations on Feb. 24.

This study originally appeared in the US today: People who have had COVID-19 may only need to be vaccinated once.