First Page Design
Site Theme
In Gerguyy, a 62-year-old man objected to getting vaccinated against COVID-19 217 over a 29-month period, for “private reasons. “But, surprisingly, he doesn’t seem to have suffered any adverse effects from over-vaccination. that is, weaker immune responses, according to a case study recently published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Of course, this is only one person, so the effects cannot be extrapolated to the general population. But they clash with a widespread fear among researchers that such overexposure to vaccination may simply lead to weakened immune responses. Some experts have raised this fear during discussions about how other people deserve to get COVID-19 boosters.
In the case of chronic exposure to a pathogenic germ, “it appears that certain types of immune cells, called T cells, become fatigued, causing them to release fewer pro-inflammatory messenger substances,” according to study co-leader Kilian Schober. of the Institute of Microbiology – Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene. This, along with other effects, can lead to “immune tolerance” that leads to weaker and less effective responses to fight a pathogen, Schober explained in a news release.
Gerguy’s excessive history of hypervaccination seemed like a good case to look for evidence of such tolerance and weaker responses. Schober and his colleagues learned of the man’s case from the headlines: Authorities had opened a fraud investigation against the man, confirming 130 vaccinations over the course of nine months, but no fees were ever charged. “Then we got in touch with him and invited him to conduct tests in Erlangen [a city in Bavaria],” Schober explained. “I was very interested in doing it. ” The man then informed the researchers of 87 more vaccines, which included a total of eight other vaccine formulations, adding updated boosters.
The researchers were required to collect blood and saliva samples from humans between doses 214 and 217 of the vaccine. They compared their immune responses with those of 29 other people who won a popular three-dose series.
Despite the dizzying number of vaccines, humans have never reported any side effects from the vaccine, and their clinical trials have revealed no abnormalities similar to overvaccination. The researchers looked in detail at their responses to the vaccines and found that while some facets of their coverage were stronger, overall, their immune responses were functionally similar to those of other people who gained far fewer doses. The levels of vaccine-induced antibodies in their blood increased after another dose, but then began to decline, similar to what they observed in controls.
The ability of their antibodies to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be five to eleven times greater than that of controls, but the researchers noted that this was due to a higher number of antibodies and not more potent antibodies. The number of immune cells, i. e. , B cells trained against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and effector T cells, increased compared to controls, but appeared to function normally. As another type of control, the researchers also looked at the human immune reaction to an unrelated virus, Epstein-Barr, which causes mononucleosis. They found that rampant vaccinations did not have a negative effect on reactions to this virus, suggesting that there were no adverse effects on immune reactions overall.
Finally, several types of evidence indicated that humans had never been inflamed with SARS-CoV-2, but the researchers were careful to point out that this could simply be due to other precautions humans have taken beyond administering 217 vaccines.
“In summary, our case report shows that hypervaccination against SARS-CoV-2 did not result in adverse events or increase the number of antibodies and spike-specific T cells without having a significant positive or negative effect on the intrinsic quality of adaptive immune responses. ” the authors concluded. It is vital to note that we do not support hypervaccination as a strategy for adaptive immunity,” they added.
Join the Ars Orbital Transmission email to receive weekly updates in your inbox. Sign up →