Corona pandemic
Immunologists against boosters for everyone after just four weeks
A doctor carries out a booster vaccination with Moderna in a vaccination center in the Spandauer Arcaden. Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In NRW, people will soon be able to get a third injection just a month after the second vaccination against the coronavirus. Does it make sense? Immunologists have a very clear opinion on this.
A booster vaccination after just four weeks makes little sense from the point of view of immunologists. In North Rhine-Westphalia, a third vaccination against the coronavirus is likely to be possible after a month, according to a decree by the state government.
Some politicians are already calling for this path to be expanded. The German Society for Immunology sees this critically: four weeks after the second vaccination, certain immunological processes are not yet completed. The booster then works much worse.
“Politics mixed up two things here that shouldn’t be mixed up,” said Prof. Carsten Watzl (Dortmund), Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, the German Press Agency. One is the recommendation of the Standing Vaccination Commission that some people should be boosted after just four weeks. “This only applies to people with a weakened immune system who did not react or hardly responded to the first two vaccinations,” explained the immunologist. “The third vaccination does not boost their immunity – I have to establish it first.”
“For everyone else – and that is the majority – I would like to achieve a boost in immunity with the third vaccination,” said Watzl. “For this, certain processes must first be completed.” Sufficient antibody-producing plasma cells and T cells would have to have formed, some would have to be converted into memory cells, others would have to migrate to the bone marrow. “These are processes that are not yet completed after four weeks.”
Decision “not expedient”
From an immunological point of view, four months are the minimum, said Watzl. “When I then vaccinate a third time, the body has already developed the cells that are best tailored to the pathogen – and I want to strengthen them again. This makes my immunity much better than if I vaccinate again after four weeks. ” The decision was presumably made out of fear of Omikron, said Watzl, but does not consider it “to be expedient. What would be more effective would now be to increase the rate of first and second vaccinations. “
The President of the German Society for Immunology, Prof. Christine Falk (Hanover), also considers a shortening to be wrong. “From an immunological point of view, four weeks after the third vaccination are too early,” said Falk of the German press agency. The immune system is then still busy with the «maturation». “Above all, the antibodies are improved once again – like when a good wine is matured”.
“If you deal with this process too early with a third vaccination with the administration of the antigen, that disrupts the maturation process rather than supporting it.” In addition, the antibody levels are at their highest level after four weeks – “therefore a third vaccination at this early point in time does not bring that much,” said Falk. It is better to use the resources to boost people whose second vaccination was more than six months ago or for risk groups.