A Rockefeller University study, published April 21 in the New England Journal of Medicine described two cases of Covid reinfection in two people previously vaccinated with two doses of Moderna and Pfizer respectively, with the second dose administered more than two weeks before the positive test.
The story of the two reinfections
The researchers carried out periodic monitoring within the university community on 417 vaccinated people. There were two cases of reinfection: patient 1 was a 51-year-old healthy woman with no risk factors for severe Covid-19, who received the first dose of the vaccine on January 21, 2021 and the second on February 19. 19 days after receiving the second dose of the vaccine, the woman developed a sore throat, congestion and headache and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. His symptoms gradually resolved over a period of 1 week. Patient 2 was still a healthy, risk-free 65-year-old female who received the first dose of the vaccine on January 19 and the second on February 9. On March 16, he complained of fatigue, sinus congestion and headache. Tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA on March 17, 36 days after completing vaccination. His symptoms have stabilized and began to resolve on March 20.
Resistant mutations
The first woman had developed titles extremely high levels of antibodies neutralizers induced by vaccination and in spite of this reinfected: this data suggests the importance, for the new infection, of the presence of variants of the coronavirus. In fact, the sequencing of the genome of both people revealed multiple mutations, which did not indicate a variant among those known, but known mutations, including the E484K, first identified in South Africa and Brazil (which confers a certain resistance to a commonly induced class of neutralizing antibodies) and the S477N variant, which has spread to New York since November. There is a small chance of reinfection, but both subjects are healed at home and this fact supports the evidence suggesting that the vaccination is effective in preventing serious diseasesbut it is important to know that vaccinated individuals can continue to spread the virus. Obviously it comes to very few cases statistically, but it is important to know that they are there.
Mild disease but potential for spread
The idea that we may no longer need testing in the post-vaccine world is probably not acceptable at this time. As far as we currently know, fully vaccinated people who develop respiratory symptoms should also consider undergo the test for Covid-19, and should do the same in case of exposure to individuals with known infection, the scientists involved wrote in the commentary on their study. The study’s conclusions support the idea that efforts to calibrate the third vaccine booster according to variants are important to offer everyone greater protection and also to block the spread of the virus from vaccinated (and reinfected) people to people at risk. because not yet vaccinated.
May 3, 2021 (change May 3, 2021 | 07:49)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED