Less than 1 in 4 people in the United States have received last year’s updated COVID-19 vaccine, even though the death toll this year has been more than 23,000 Americans.
One of the most common reasons for avoiding the COVID vaccine is concern about side effects such as fatigue, muscle and joint pain, chills, headache, fever, nausea, and general malaise. But a new study, led by UC San Francisco, found that the symptoms indicate a robust immune response that likely reduces the chances of infection.
The study, which appears online June 10 in Annals of internal medicineIt is based on reports of symptoms and antibody responses from 363 people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines when they were first introduced.
After the second dose of the vaccine, the researchers found that those with seven or more symptoms had almost twice the antibody levels as those who had no symptoms. Most of the participants were between forties and sixties and had not had the virus.
About 40% of people in the study also wore a device to monitor their temperature, breathing and heart rate. The researchers found that those whose skin temperature increased by 1 degree Celsius after the second dose had antibody levels three times higher six months later, compared to those whose temperature did not increase.
The absence of side effects does not mean that the vaccine is not working
“In general, we found that the greater the number of side effects, the higher the level of antibodies,” said first author Ethan Dutcher, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Weill Institute of Neurosciences. “But this was not a hard and fast rule: some people without side effects had better antibodies than other people with side effects.”
As the virus has evolved and death rates have decreased, many people underestimate its impact. “The cost of COVID remains high for some: illness, job loss, long-lasting fatigue and the dreaded long COVID,” said co-senior author Elissa Epel, PhD, vice chair of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “Although the symptoms of vaccination can be very unpleasant, it is important to remember that they do not come close to the possible complications of the disease,” she said.
“Given that COVID-19 vaccines are likely here to stay, identifying what predicts a strong antibody response will continue to be important,” said co-senior author Aric Prather, PhD, professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. .
The latest recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are that everyone 6 months and older should receive the updated vaccine, and those 65 and older should receive an additional dose.
Co-authors: Ashley Mason, PhD, and Frederick Hecht, MD, of UCSF; James E. Robinson, MD, of Tulane University; and Stacy Drury, MD, PhD, of Tulane University and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Money: National Institutes of Health (R24AG048024, 5U24AG066528 and U54CA260581).
Disclosures: Epel serves on the scientific advisory boards of Meru Health and Oura Health. Mason receives consulting fees from Oura Health. Prather is an advisor to NeuroGeneces and L-New Co.