LOS ANGELES, March 20 (Xinhua) — The magnitude and quality of a key immune cell response to vaccination using two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is significantly lower in people who have already been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus than in those who were not, according to a new study published on Monday.
This study, co-funded by the US National Institutes of Health, also shows that the level of this key immune cell targeting the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is significantly lower in unvaccinated people with COVID-19. 19 than in vaccinated people who had never been infected before.
This study, published by the journal Immunity, suggests that the virus is damaging an important immune cell response.
These new findings highlight the need to develop vaccination strategies aimed at specifically boosting CD8+ T cell responses in people already infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to the researchers. END