Immune system reacts

Man has been vaccinated 217 times against coronavirus

Symbol image(Bild: Scharinger Daniel)

A man has been vaccinated over 200 times against the Covid-19 pathogen. Consequential health damage? Not a thing! Researchers were amazed to discover that the immune system of the frequent vaccinator worked even better than in people who had only had three vaccinations.

In principle, the National Immunization Committee (NIG) recommends that healthy adults up to the age of 59 have a basic immunity of three vaccinations or infections; people aged 60 and over and risk groups are also advised to have an annual booster.

Newspaper reports then drew the attention of German scientists to a man who, by his own account, had been vaccinated against coronavirus a total of 217 times for personal reasons. 134 vaccinations have been officially confirmed. Eight different vaccines were administered, including various mRNA vaccines, explained Kilian Schober from the Department of Microbiology and Infection Immunology. When asked, Schober was unable to say what reasons prompted the man to undergo the numerous immunizations.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

More immune cells and antibodies
Researchers from the University of Erlangen and the University Hospital Erlangen had examined blood samples from the frequent vaccinator from various years. They found that his immune system not only functioned completely normally - certain immune cells and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were even significantly more common than in people with only three vaccinations.

Symbolic image(Bild: Scharinger Daniel)

However, the researchers emphasized that the man was an isolated case. Conclusions about the general population or recommendations could therefore not be drawn from the results. The group published the results of the study on Tuesday in the journal "The Lancet Infectious Diseases".

Immune system also more effective against other pathogens
The researchers invited the patient to Erlangen to find out whether his immune cells were no longer able to fight the coronaviruses as effectively due to habituation effects. However, they found no evidence of this. During the study, the man also had himself vaccinated again - for the 217th time. This significantly increased the number of antibodies, according to the authors of the study. The immune system also remained effective against other pathogens, as further tests showed.