Revaccination in due time does not cause immune paralysis, but only enhances the response to the response of the immune system. This opinion was expressed by experts interviewed by RBC.
Earlier, the president of the Russian Scientific Society of Immunologists, scientific director of the Institute of Immunology and Physiology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Valery Chereshnev, said that too frequent revaccination can cause immune paralysis – a condition when the body does not respond to pathogens of various infections , and lead to the opposite effect. This was reported by TASS.
According to the head of the laboratory for especially dangerous infections of the Federal Research Center for Fundamental and Translational Medicine (FRC FTM), Alexander Chepurnov, it is premature to argue that frequent revaccination can have the opposite effect and cause immunological paralysis.
“I would not undertake to say so, because increasing immunization always leads to an increase in antibody titers and the strength of the immune response. But taking into account that the properties of proteins from the antigen that is used can play a negative role, ”he said.
The proteins of the coronavirus, which are used to create vaccines, can have immunity-lowering properties, while its antigen, which is used for the same purpose, can affect the blood clotting of a person, Chepurnov explained.
The scientist mentioned a publication in the journal Lancet, which said that repeated booster vaccinations with drugs of the same type can provoke serious health problems.
According to the expert, it is premature to talk about revaccination every six months. “We need to deal with this first. And then, there is a colossal difference, in some people after three months you can find the absence of antibodies after diseases, while in others after 10 months, and after a year. Chasing deadlines here is the wrong approach, ”concluded the infectious disease specialist.
Immunologist Vladimir Bolibok told RBC that the stories that revaccination can cause immune paralysis are nothing more than a myth.
“First, the immune system develops immunity, and the strength of this immunity depends on how often you encounter an infection. If you encounter it often, then the immune system will maintain the immune response and produce more and more protective antibodies and protective cells against this infection, ”he explained.
The term “immune paralysis” itself was linked by the immunologist with the discovery of the Russian scientist Aleksandr Bezredok, who in 1906 invented a way to deplete the immune response when injecting horse serum against diphtheria. This was required in order not to cause anaphylactic shock (a pathological reaction of the body that occurs when an allergen is injected, in this case, a medicine for diphtheria. – RBC ) , the specialist said.
“But to extrapolate the Bezredok phenomenon to the fact that the alleged frequent administration of vaccines causes immune paralysis is to call white black,” Bolibok emphasized.
As an illustration of his words, he cited the vaccination system in children, who are injected with many different vaccines in the first months of life.
“A child is vaccinated at three, four, five and six months, with an interval between vaccinations of only one and a half months – this scheme has been worked out for decades. And this scheme leads to the fact that there is a very good, persistent and long-term immune response, ”he concluded.
In September, the Lancet magazine published an article, the authors of which stated the uselessness of mass revaccination, since too frequent or early administration of the booster vaccine against COVID-19 can cause myocarditis or Guillain-Barré syndrome.
