People who already had COVID-19 develop an immune response, which protects them from repeated infections. This raises a question during the current ongoing vaccination programme – do these people need to be vaccinated?
Scientists from UCL 51 UK healthcare workers, around half of whom had a previous laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, to find the answer.
People who previously had COVID-19 may only need one dose of the vaccine. Image credit: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
Vaccine sort of introduces the information about the virus to our immune system. It’s like giving a picture of someone to the bouncer at the club so he would know who to not let it. And it works with a surprisingly high efficacy. However, if that person was already in the club and the bouncer had to kick him out, maybe there is no point in showing his picture again?
Scientists found that a single dose of Pfizer/BioNTech’s RNA vaccine was still helpful in strengthening immune response to COVID-19, even if the person had this disease before. It is very important to stress that only one shot is needed – typically these vaccines are administered in two shots. Vaccine acts as a booster to the immune system, enhancing immune response and providing a strong protection from more difficult COVID-19 cases. More research is necessary, but if these news are confirmed later, this could mean that a lot of people will not need a second shot of the vaccine.
Current plan is to vaccinate as many people as possible, including those who had the infection before. They would undergo the same vaccination procedure as everyone else and would get two shots. But maybe they only need one shot – this would help stretch the available resources a bit further.
James Moon, lead author of the study, said: “These published peer-reviewed results shows that healthcare workers who had previously had COVID-19 make a huge antibody response to the first vaccine dose which effectively acted as a boost.” Studies about immunity against COVID-19 are ongoing. Some work remains to be done to figure out if one vaccine shot is enough for people who already had the infection. However, the currently available evidence suggest that this might be the case.
COVID-19 vaccinations are pushing forward, receiving some resistance and a lot of support. It is our opportunity to return to a somewhat normal life. When a lot of people (70-80% of the population) are vaccinated COVID-19 hospitalizations will become so rare that maintaining a lockdown regime will become simply unnecessary. It is our path to normality. Understanding that some people may only require a single shot of the vaccine could help speed up vaccinations and protect more people using the same resources.
Source: UCL