Why you really need the second dose of a vaccine!

Not surprisingly there has been a big push to do away with the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccines. The concept behind this is to immunize twice as many people with a single dose of the vaccine. The United Kingdom has decided to take this approach and delay all second doses of COVID-19 vaccine potentially for three months! Others simply want to avoid getting stuck twice.

Fortunately, in the United States the FDA has remained strongly opposed to this idea. President-elect Biden has vowed to release all available vaccine for initial doses, but importantly not to do away with second doses.

The problem is most people don’t understand that the second shot of a vaccine is not simply insurance of immunity, but is essential to the development of effective and particularly long-lived immunity.  Delaying a second dose not only jeopardizes effective immunity, but may even result in tolerating and preventing the induction of effective immunity in the future. This would put people at even greater risk than no vaccine at all!

Let me explain.

The first exposure to a virus (or a vaccine) wakes up your immune system. It allows your body to recognize the specific proteins produced by the virus and to start making an immune response. This includes blood proteins (antibodies) that neutralize virus and importantly lymphocytes that kill virus infected cells.  Both components are necessary to affectively defeat the virus and allow a human to survive the infection. 

A first shot of a vaccine stimulates lymphocytes and antibodies that respond short term to an infection. The second dose is what cements the immune response and causes long term protection. This needs to occur about 30 days after the first shot to boost immunity while it is still “fresh.”

Unfortunately, this primary response is effective only as early protection against infection. If there is no ongoing exposure to the virus or vaccine, the immunity wanes and is actually turned off to prevent problems like your immune system attacking yourself (autoimmune disease). 

The secondary (or booster) immune response involves longer lived memory cells that give you immunity for years, not days or weeks!

This means that the immunity from a single vaccine dose is not long lived and may not be summoned again if there is a second viral infection. You can actually make an infection worse with a vaccine if the induced immunity is not strong and effective (called vaccine enhancement).

The second shot of a vaccine is crucial both in terms of its timing and its dose. You need the second exposure within the period of time when your immune system is still activated from the first exposure. This is so all of the lymphocytes that responded initially are still there waiting for a second kick start. This is normally three to four weeks after the first dose, unless you’re using some type of vaccine like a live virus that persist over a long period of time. 

Therefore, the decision to give a second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines three to four weeks after the initial dose was not some random concept, but based specifically on well-known immune theory that has evolved over hundreds of years.

Some have suggested that there was evidence of immunity after a single dose of these vaccines, but that immunity was much less effective and short lived. It is bothersome to me as an immunologist that individuals in the U.K. with scientific backgrounds who should know better are pushing this idea.

Get the vaccine and make sure you get the second dose on time! It is the only assurance of long-term protection. You will need it!

Published by jbakerjrblog


4 thoughts on “Why you really need the second dose of a vaccine!

  1. Can you please ask the politicians to appoint you immunity Czar so we can get this G–D– crisis over? I would also like to see a future comment on the differentials between lockdown states and non-lockdown states, including data on suicide, child abuse, differential death rates for common ailments and deaths caused by postponing care. I do not know anyone who has died of Covid, but I do know 2 people who have died due to delayed treatment for non-Covid illness.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Dr. Baker,

    Thank you for all of the science behind the justification for 2 doses. I am desperately seeking my and my husbands vaccines as we are not eligible. I have “signed up” on at least 6 or 7 sites and portals so far. I have some additional questions regarding all of the “New” strains. I heard on CNN on 1/14/2021 that the S. African variant may have an “Escape Mutation” which if I understood correctly means it could “escape” the current Pfizer/Moderna Vaccine. What are your thoughts? Also, there may be 2 new US mutations discovered in Ohio. Here is a line to an article that I found on it- https://www.wric.com/health/coronavirus/osu-wexner-medical-center-finds-new-strain-of-covid-19-in-ohio/ and a quote from the article “Both of these findings relate to a U.S. based strain called the ’20G’ strain, but there are differences besides the core elements of the 20G strain,” explains Dr. Dan Jones, vice chairman of the Division of Molecular Pathology.” Any thoughts on this frightening news?

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: