In a bizarre case, a 62-year-old man from Germany was vaccinated 217 times against Covid and surprisingly suffered no side effects. The unique case is documented in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
The case was taken up further by the researchers at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. The team of researchers at the university decided to study the curious case and called the man to undergo various tests.
“We learned about his case via newspaper articles,” Dr Kilian Schober, from the university’s microbiology department, said. The man provided fresh blood and saliva samples.
The researchers also tested some frozen blood samples of his that had been stored in recent years. Dr Schober said: “We were able to take blood samples ourselves when the man received a further vaccination during the study at his own insistence.
“We were able to use these samples to determine exactly how the immune system reacts to the vaccination.” Evidence for 130 of the jabs was collected by the public prosecutor of the city of Magdeburg, who opened an investigation with the allegation of fraud, but no criminal charges were brought.
Covid vaccines cannot cause infection but can teach the body how to fight the disease. Dr Schober worried hyper-stimulating the immune system with repeated doses might have fatigued certain cells. But the researchers found no evidence of this in the 62-year-old.
And there was no sign that he had ever been infected with Covid. The researchers said: “Importantly, we do not endorse hyper-vaccination as a strategy to enhance adaptive immunity.” And the results of their tests on the 62-year-old were insufficient for making far-reaching conclusions, let alone recommendations for the general public.
“Current research indicates that a three-dose vaccination, coupled with regular top-up vaccines for vulnerable groups, remains the favoured approach,” they say. “There is no indication that more vaccines are required.”
The NHS says Covid vaccines are normally given seasonally but some people with a severely weakened immune system may need additional protection at other times – and it will contact those whose NHS record suggests may be eligible.
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