CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Health experts are investigating something you may not have thought about: Is the COVID-19 vaccine effective in patients with obesity?
Obesity medicine specialist at the University of Virginia, Dr. Cate Varney said it’s an issue researchers have confronted before: the link between how well vaccines work and body weight.
“There’s been several small studies that show that obesity negatively impacts the immune system’s response to vaccines," Varney said.
Experts said people with obesity are more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19, more likely to have a severe case of the illness and more likely to die.
“Adults with excess weight or obesity, they’re the most impacted by COVID-19 and they make up more than 70% of our population," Varney said, adding that whether the vaccine works well for patients with obesity is a "crucial question."
She pointed to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which found excess weight can weaken the flu shot.
“Researchers were concerned because in the last several years we’ve actually looked at the effects of obesity on vaccines," Varney said. “Patients with obesity, they didn’t have as robust of a response with the flu vaccine.”
Other studies on the flu shot had similar results. But when it comes to the coronavirus, things are different.
“This is not the case with the COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, the vaccine is greater than 90% effective in patients with obesity,” Varney said.
The Pfizer vaccine has 95% efficacy and Varney noted 70% of participants in the vaccine trial had excess weight.
She said this is promising, but more data is needed to determine how obese patients respond to the vaccine, compared to others.
“We need to see results in a very large population," she said.