February 6, 2024 – People who switched arms during multiple shots of the COVID-19 vaccine experienced an improved immune response, based on a brand new study.
The research was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Compared to people using the identical arm for 2 vaccinations, the rise may very well be significant for some individuals who don't respond well to vaccinations due to their age or health conditions. The New York Times reported.
“At this point in the pandemic, when most people have had multiple doses of vaccine or infections, switching arms for Covid vaccines may not provide much benefit.” The times wrote. “However, if the results are confirmed by further studies, they could have implications for all multiple-dose vaccines, including vaccinations for children.”
“I'm not making any recommendations at this point because we need to understand this much better,” said Marcel E. Curlin, MD, an infectious disease physician at Oregon Health & Science University who led the work.
But “all other things being equal, we should think about switching weapons,” he said The times.
Previous studies have been small and produced mixed results. None showed a significant difference within the immunity granted.
In Curlin's study, he and others repeatedly measured antibody levels in 54 pairs of university employees matched for age, gender and time after vaccination.
They found that switching weapons increased antibody levels within the blood fourfold.
Curlin called the effect “consistent (and) statistically significant.”
“The improved response clearly occurred three weeks after the second booster dose and was sustained for over 13 months after the booster shot,” Oregon Health & Science University said in an announcement Press release. “The researchers found increased immunity to the unique SARS-CoV-2 strain and an excellent stronger immune response to the Omicron variant, which occurred a couple of yr after the arm switch.
“Researchers aren't sure why this happens, but they speculate that giving a shot in each arm activates new immune responses in different lymph nodes in each arm.”