Israel may soon recommend a fourth dose of covid vaccine for some particularly vulnerable cases, while for now this hypothesis is excluded for the entire population. This was announced by Galia Rahav, head of the infectious unit of the Sheba Medical center and a member of the government’s advisory council on the pandemic.
“I’ll give my recommendations in two weeks, probably suggest giving the fourth dose to some immunosuppressed people,” he told the Times of Israel. Not all people suffering from conditions that normally reduce immunity will need it, explained Rahav, who bases his considerations on a study to evaluate antibodies, conducted on a sample of 300 immunosuppressed. For example, those with HIV respond well to the vaccine, as do some transplant recipients.
“Immunosuppression varies a lot from patient to patient and therefore the response to the vaccine also varies. Some immunosuppressed people respond to the vaccine like healthy people, while others do not,” he stressed. The good news, says Rahav, is that the study shows that the vaccine is “very immunogenic,” meaning it causes a strong immune response even among those who have difficulty getting it. Unfortunately, there are also people who do not respond to the vaccine. In these cases, Rahav argues, if three doses are not served, it makes no sense to administer a fourth.