People who have had COVID-19 may not benefit from the second dose of the two-shot vaccines against the virus, a study published Wednesday by the journal ACS Nano found.
In the study, 36 people who had been infected with the virus and received the first dose of a two-dose vaccine had a sufficient immune response to provide maximum protection against reinfection, the researchers said.
The second dose of the vaccine provided no additional increase in antibody levels, they said.
Antibodies are cells produced by the immune system to fight off infection The COVID-19 vaccines are designed to stimulate production of these cells to help prevent severe disease.
Still, this antibody response, which creates immunity, wanes over time, suggesting that nearly everyone will need a “booster” dose of the vaccine at some point, according to the study.
“For those who have had COVID-19, they likely need only a single vaccination instead of the current regimen of two shots,” study co-author Dr. Otto Yang told UPI in an email.
“People who haven’t had COVID-19, however, need both vaccinations to reach reasonable levels of antibodies,” said Yang, an infectious disease specialist at UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine.
