Pfizer vaccine may be less effective in people with obesity, says study

[Northerner]

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be less effective in people with obesity, data suggests.

Italian researchers have discovered that healthcare workers with obesity produced only about half the amount of antibodies in response to a second dose of the jab compared with healthy people. Although it is too soon to know what this means for the efficacy of the vaccine, it might imply that people with obesity need an additional booster dose to ensure they are adequately protected against coronavirus.

Previous research has suggested that obesity – which is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) over 30 – increases the risk of dying of Covid-19 by nearly 50%, as well as increasing the risk of ending up in hospital by 113%.

Pfizer vaccine may be less effective in people with obesity, says study

Healthcare workers with obesity found to produce only about half the antibodies healthy people do

www.theguardian.com

 

[mikeyB]

They may have half the antibodies in a blood sample, but that may not translate directly into a measure of efficacy in the event of infection. So it may be less effective, but how effective does it need to be to outweigh the current disparity in death rate?