Severe obesity may weaken the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines among individuals who have never been infected with the virus, according to a small study published this month.
A study conducted by Professor Volkan Demirhan Yumuk from Istanbul University in Turkey found that adults aged 18 or older with severe obesity have a much weaker immune response to the vaccine as compared with individuals with normal weight, according to a news release from the European Association for the Study of Obesity.
Among those in the study without previous a COVID-19 infection who had received the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine, patients with severe obesity had antibody levels more than three times lower than normal-weight individuals. Those who received the Chinese-made CoronaVac and who had severe obesity and no history of prior infection had antibody levels 27 times lower than normal-weight people, according to data being presented this week at the European Congress on Obesity in Maastricht, Netherlands.
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