Covid vax, booster dose immunity to decline rapidly in obese people: Study.

ISLAMABAD -- The protection offered by Covid-19 vaccination declines more rapidly in people with severe obesity than in those with normal weight, scientists have found.

People with obesity were more likely to be hospitalised, require ventilators and die from Covid, but vaccines proved effective for them.

But, the study, led by a team from the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, suggested that people with obesity are likely to need more frequent booster doses to maintain their immunity.

However, even the booster antibodies likely decrease in 15 weeks time, revealed the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine.

A team from the University of Edinburgh looked at real-time data tracking the health of 3.5 million people. They looked at hospitalisation and mortality from Covid in adults who received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine (either Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca).

They found that people with severe obesity (a body mass index greater than 40 kg/m2) had a 76 per cent higher risk of severe Covid-19 outcomes, compared to those with a normal BMI, Medical Daily reported.

A modest increase in risk was also seen in people with obesity (30-39.9kg/m2), and those who were underweight.

Break-through infections after the second vaccine dose also led to hospitalisation and death sooner (from 10 weeks) among people with severe obesity, and among people with obesity (after 15 weeks), than among individuals with normal weight (after 20 weeks).

The team from Cambridge studied people with severe obesity and compared the number and function of immune cells in their blood to those of people of normal weight.

The researchers found that six months after a second vaccine dose, people with severe obesity had similar...