The man, who is in his 60s, claims to have received 217 doses of eight different vaccines against covid-19. The reasons must have been “personal”. Now scientists have examined him properly and find that his immune system does not seem to have been damaged by the extensive vaccination.
The researchers contacted the man when they learned of the amount of doses he had taken and asked if he would consider contributing to the research, to which he agreed.
Additional protection
One concern the researchers had was that the man’s immune system would have been exhausted. This phenomenon can occur in certain chronic diseases such as HIV or hepatitis B that go into remission and where the immune system is allowed to work sporadically. But the results, which have now been published in Lancet Infectious Diseasesshows the opposite.
Among other things, the man had a large number of so-called T cells, a type of immune cell, against the Sars-cov-2 virus. He had more of them than comparable individuals who received three doses of the vaccine and they were found to be effective in fighting the virus.
As part of the study, the man received another dose of the vaccine and it appeared to give him further increased protection.
No side effects
The man also did not appear to have received less protection against other infections and the researchers’ conclusion is that his vaccination does not seem to have damaged the immune system.
He has also reported no side effects from the extensive vaccination.
“But this only applies to this one individual so we can’t say anything about whether the same applies to others,” says Kilian Sober, one of the researchers, in a comment.
The researchers emphasize that excessive vaccination is not something that is recommended.