Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – New research has found that people who have experienced side effects after receiving the “Fays / BioNTech” and “Moderna” vaccines against “Covid-19” such as fever, chills, or pain. Muscles, tend to have a greater antibody response after vaccination.
The study, published in the journal “JAMA Network Open”, Friday, concluded that the presence of such symptoms after receiving the vaccine is related to greater responses to antibodies, compared to the presence of pain or rashes only at the injection site, or the absence of symptoms.
“Our conclusion is that these findings establish a new concept for reading post-vaccination symptoms as indicators of vaccine efficacy, and reinforce guidelines for booster vaccine doses in the elderly,” the researchers at Columbia University in New York City, the University of Vermont, and Boston University wrote in their paper. .
However, although some people may experience small, localized symptoms, or no symptoms at all, the vaccine can still elicit strong immune responses in them, too. Nearly all of the study participants showed a positive antibody response after completing a two-dose vaccine series of Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna.
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, who was not involved in the new study, said: “I don’t want the patient to tell me, ‘Oh, I didn’t feel any reaction, my arm didn’t hurt, I didn’t get hurt’. With heat. The vaccine didn’t work.” “I don’t want that conclusion to be available,” he continued.
“This[study]is more to reassure people who have had a reaction that their immune system is responding to the vaccine, fairly well, even though it has caused them some discomfort,” Schaffner said.
The researchers analyzed data from 928 adults who self-reported their symptoms after receiving the Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna vaccines, as well as sending a dry blood spot for antibody testing. The majority of participants were white adults, with a median age of 65 years.
The researchers found that 446 participants, or 48% of them, reported systemic symptoms after the vaccine dose, 12% reported experiencing only local symptoms, and 40% reported no symptoms.
In parallel, an antibody reaction was observed in 444 or 99% of participants who had systemic symptoms, 99% of those who had only local symptoms, and 98% of those who had no symptoms.
“Many speculated if people who had a greater reaction to the vaccine might actually have a more robust immune response,” Schaffner explained. “These data seem to support that conclusion,” he added.