Covid Vaccines Significantly Less Effective in People With Severe Obesity, Study Suggests

People with severe obesity generate a significantly weaker immune response to COVID-19 vaccination compared to those with normal weight, but the previously infected do not have this problem, a study has found. The study was conducted by Professor Volkan Demirhan Yumuk from Istanbul University and colleagues and was presented at the European Congress on Obesity in the Netherlands last week. SciTechDaily has more.

Obesity is a disease complicating the course of COVID-19, and the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine antibody response in adults with obesity may be compromised. Vaccines against influenza, hepatitis B, and rabies, have shown reduced responses in people with obesity…
Researchers measured antibody levels in blood samples taken from patients and normal weight controls who had received two doses of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or CoronaVac [Sinovac] vaccine and had their second dose four weeks earlier. The participants were classified by infection history as either previously having COVID-19 or not (confirmed by their antibody profile)…
In those without previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccinated with Pfizer/BioNTech, patients with severe obesity had antibody levels more than three times lower than normal weight controls (average 5,823 vs 19,371 AU/ml).
Similarly, in participants with no prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccinated with CoronaVac, patients with severe obesity had antibody levels 27 times lower than normal weight controls (average 178 vs 4,894 AU/ml).
However, in those with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, antibody levels in patients with severe obesity and vaccinated with Pfizer/BioNTech or CoronaVac were not significantly different from normal weight controls (average 39,043 vs 14,115 AU/ml and 3,221 vs 7,060 AU/ml, respectively).

With obesity a major predictor of serious disease and death in Covid patients, that’s not good news for vaccine efficacy.

Worth reading in full.