Obesity May Impact Covid Vaccines Efficacy

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 23, Jan 2021, 18:23 pm IST | UPDATED: 23, Jan 2021, 18:23 pm IST

Delhi: Covid-19 vaccines may not be fully effective in people who are suffering from obesity, as experts on Tuesday suggested that the process of healing may be slower in obese people as compared to healthy ones.

According to a report on Nature, obesity correlates with a dulled immune response to Covid-19 and vaccines for a handful of other conditions often don't work as well in obese people, suggesting that a shot for Covid-19 might not provide as much protection as researchers would like.

The severity of Covid-19 is potentially high in obese or diabetic people. The fact is that the immunity and the process of healing may be slower in an obese person than a healthy person," Navneet Sood, Pulmonary Consultant, Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, told IANS.

"Such conditions also influence the immune system's response to vaccines. The same is applied to Covid-19 vaccine. But there is no study yet which strongly confirms the direct relation between Covid-19 vaccines' effectiveness and obesity," Sood added.

Obesity can cause chronic, low-grade inflammation, which is thought to contribute to the increased risk of conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. As a result, people who are obese might have higher levels of a variety of immune-regulating proteins, including cytokines.

The immune responses unleashed by cytokines can damage healthy tissue in some cases of severe Covid-19, according to the report.