Vaccine antibodies decline 7 months after second injection: US study

The antibody levels generated by two injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine can decrease up to 10 times seven months after the second vaccination, according to research.

The drop in antibody levels will compromise the body’s ability to defend itself against COVID-19 if the individual is infected.

In a recent BioRxiv study published before peer review, many vaccine recipients showed substantial decreases in antibodies to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, or SARS-CoV-2, and its variants, including Delta , Beta and Mu.

Bali Pulendran of Stanford University and Mehul Suthar of Emory University told Reuters that the study shows that “vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the vaccine strain d ‘origin, but these levels decrease by almost 10 times in seven months. “

While the body has other defense mechanisms to ward off the virus, Pulendran and Suthar added that antibodies “are of critical importance in protecting against infection with SARS-CoV-2”.

The study involved 46 healthy participants who had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The participants’ blood was tested once after receiving the second vaccination and once more after six months.

The researchers suggested giving a third booster vaccination as a measure to improve the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Previous reports on data from a phase one study showed that participants had a higher level of neutralizing antibody titers against the Delta variant of the CCP virus after receiving a booster – a third dose – compared to those who had just received two doses, officials said.

“The third dose raises the neutralizing antibodies in our laboratory studies to levels up to 100 times higher [after the third dose] compared to [before]”, Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer of Pfizer, told investors during a call earlier this year.

The two-dose Pfizer vaccine was found to be 96 percent effective for the first two months after the second dose, according to a July 28 study by company scientists.

The research paper pointed to a drop in efficacy to 83.7% after four to six months.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the most widely used vaccine in the United States. More than 226 million doses have been administered as of September 30, compared to 151 million shots from Moderna and 15 million from Johnson & Johnson.