Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine less effective on obese people, finds study

A new study has revealed that the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine might be less effective on obese people, media reports said.

The study carried out by a group of Italian researchers, suggested that obese healthcare workers who received the COVID-19 vaccine were not able to produce as many antibodies as their healthy peers.

The obese healthcare workers had only half the amount of antibodies produced by healthy workers after the administration of the second dose.

According to the study conducted by Aldo Venuti, from the Istituti Fisioterapici Ospitalieri in Rome, 99.5 per cent of these healthcare workers had developed an antibody response against the virus seven days after the second dose administration.

But this response was dissimilar to what obese people witnessed after the administration of both doses of the vaccine.

"Since obesity is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality for patients with Covid-19, it is mandatory to plan an efficient vaccination programme in this subgroup," Venuti said, as cited in the media reports.

He added: "Although further studies are needed, this data may have important implications to the development of vaccination strategies for Covid-19, particularly in obese people. If our data was to be confirmed by larger studies, giving obese people an extra dose of the vaccine or a higher dose could be options to be evaluated in this population."