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Delaying a COVID vaccine’s second dose boosts immune response

Older people who waited 11–12 weeks for their second jab had higher peak antibody levels than did those who waited only 3 weeks.
  1. Heidi Ledford
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An elderly man receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at El-Menzah sports hall in Tunisia's capital.

A man in Tunis receives a dose of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19. Credit: Jdidi Wassim/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

Facing a limited vaccine supply, the United Kingdom embarked on a bold public-health experiment at the end of 2020: delaying second doses of COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to maximize the number of people who would be at least partially protected from hospitalization and death.

Now, a study suggests that delaying the second dose of the Pfizer–BioNTech mRNA vaccine could boost antibody responses after the second inoculation more than threefold in those older than 801.

It is the first direct study of how such a delay affects coronavirus antibody levels, and could inform vaccine scheduling decisions in other countries, the authors say. “This study further supports a growing body of evidence that the approach taken in the UK for delaying that second dose has really paid off,” Gayatri Amirthalingam, an epidemiologist at Public Health England in London and a co-author of the preprint, said during a press briefing.

Many COVID-19 vaccines are given in two doses: the first initiates an immune response, and the second, ‘booster’ shot strengthens it. Clinical trials of the three vaccines used in the United Kingdom generally featured a three- to four-week gap between doses.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01299-y

References

  1. Parry, H. M. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.15.21257017 (2021).

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