Can a second booster dose be delayed in patients who have had COVID-19?

  1. Jorg Taubel
  2. Christopher S Spencer
  3. Anne Freier
  4. Dorothée Camilleri
  5. Ibon Garitaonandia
  6. Ulrike Lorch

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Abstract

Vaccination forms a key part of public health strategies to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 globally. In the UK, two vaccines (BNT162b2-mRNA produced by Pfizer, and ChAdOx-1-S produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca) have been licensed to date, and their administration is prioritised according to individual risk. This study forms part of a longitudinal assessment of participants ‘SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody levels before and after vaccination. Our results confirm that there is little quantitative difference in the antibody titres achieved by the two vaccines. Our results also suggest that individuals who have previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2 achieve markedly higher antibody titres than those who are immunologically naïve. This finding is useful to inform vaccine prioritisation strategies in the future: individuals with no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection should be prioritised for a second vaccine inoculation.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.09.21255200: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    Antibody quantification was performed using the anti-S; Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike ECLIA Anti-SARS-CoV-2 (Roche Diagnostics, UK) test6.
    anti-S; Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike ECLIA
    suggested: None
    Anti-SARS-CoV-2
    suggested: None

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    One limitation of our study was that numerous individuals’ titres were outside the range of quantification for the ECLIA test. We are therefore unsure of the precise antibody levels. However, sensitivity analysis showed that geometric means allowed us to successfully compare these antibody levels. No individual without prior infection had a titre high enough to exceed the upper bounds of our test, further illustrating that prior SARS-CoV-2 infection yields a much higher antibody titre. Though this is interim data, over the coming months, we will be able to achieve a more rounded picture of our cohort, who are due to receive their second injections in the coming weeks. Further work is required to examine whether the longevity of the immune response is different based on SARS-CoV-2 infection history. Importantly, whilst we did see some small differences in antibody levels between the two vaccines, we do not believe there to be any appreciable difference in the protection afforded by these two vaccines, in line with previous findings8.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.04.09.21255200 on medRxiv