New York: People who experience more side effects like chills, tiredness, feeling unwell, and headache post Covid-19 vaccination may be having an enhanced antibody production in their bodies, according to a preprint study, that is not yet peer-reviewed.
Protection against SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19, wanes over time, and booster uptake has been low.
The new study, by researchers from University of California - San Francisco, US, showed that people who had those side effects after the second dose of a Covid vaccine had more antibodies against the coronavirus at one month and six months after the shot, compared with those who did not have symptoms.
Increases in skin temperature and heart rate also signalled higher antibody levels, the study showed. The study explored the link between post-vaccination symptoms, biometric changes, and neutralising antibodies (nAB) after mRNA vaccination. The team collected data from 363 adults who received two doses of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Covid.
“We found that certain symptoms (chills, tiredness, feeling unwell, and headache) after the second dose were associated with increases in nAB at one and six months post-vaccination, to roughly 140-160 per cent the level of individuals without each symptom,” said Ethan G. Dutcher, from the UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, in the paper.
“Each additional symptom predicted a 1.1-fold nAB increase. Greater changes in skin temperature and heart rate after the second dose predicted higher nAB levels. Skin temperature had a stronger predictive relationship for six-month than one-month nAB levels,” Dutcher added.