Obese in need of frequent ‘booster’ Covid jabs

OBESE people need frequent “booster” Covid jabs – just like the elderly, according to new research.

Vaccines used to protect people from the virus are less effective in overweight patients as immunity wears off faster, scientists said.

Infected patients are also often worse hit by the virus if they are morbidly overweight, researchers added.

Millions of participants were analysed for the study that found morbidly obese people, with a BMI (body mass index) higher than 40, were 76% more likely to get severe Covid symptoms than those of a smaller BMI.

A smaller increase in risk was also discovered in those with a BMI of at least 30, which affects a quarter of Britons, and those who were underweight.

Infections after the second dose also led to hospitalisation and death sooner, from 10 and 15 weeks, among each obesity group, respectively.

This was up to twice as long than for people of normal weight, who ended up in hospital on average 20 weeks after infection, the study found.

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh, of the University of Edinburgh and a lead author of the study, said: “Our findings demonstrate that protection gained through Covid-19 vaccination drops off faster for people with severe obesity than those with a normal body mass index.

“Using large-scale data assets such as the EAVE II Platform in Scotland has enabled us to generate important and timely insights that enable improvements to the delivery of Covid-19 vaccine schedules in a post-pandemic UK.”

His team tracked 3.5 million individuals north of the Border – analysing hospitalisation and mortality rates in those who received two Pfizer or Astrazeneca jabs.