The man willingly gave blood and saliva samples for the researchersto study.
A 62-year-old man from Germany intentionally got 217 doses of COVID-19 vaccines over 29 months. The vaccinations were not part of any clinical study and were administered for what the man claims were "private reasons."
The man, who lives in Magdeburg, Germany, intentionally got the shots between June 2021 and November 2023. His identity has not been disclosed as per German privacy regulations.
Of the total 217 shots, 134 were confirmed through official channels, including a prosecutor and vaccination centre documentation, while the remaining 83 were self-reported.
He has not reported any vaccine-related side effects, and underwent repeated antigen and PCR testing for 29 months, revealing no evidence of a COVID-19 infection. However, the researchers caution that it is unclear whether his Covid-free status can be attributed directly to his “hypervaccination” regimen.
His actions turned him into a unique case study, offering insights into the effects of repeated vaccination against the same virus.
What Researchers Say
Dr Emily Happy Miller, an assistant professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told CNN, "This is a really unusual case of someone receiving that many Covid vaccines, clearly not following any type of guidelines." She speculated, "Perhaps he didn't get Covid because he was well-protected in the first three doses of the vaccine. We also don't know anything about his behaviours."
Senior author of the study, Dr Kilian Schober, a researcher at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, highlighted the individual nature of this case study, stating that the results could not be generalised. He underlined, "The benefit is not much bigger if you get vaccinated three times or 200 times."
Effects of Hypervaccination
Upon learning about the man through news reports, researchers at The Lancet contacted him in May 2022 via the prosecutor handling his case, when he had already received 213 shots.
Despite being cautioned by the researchers against further vaccinations, he agreed to provide medical information, blood, and saliva samples. During this period, he received an additional four Covid shots, bringing his total to 217.
The man willingly gave blood and saliva samples for the researchers to study. They compared his antibody levels with 29 people who got three mRNA COVID-19 shots. After his 214th and 215th shots, his antibody levels peaked, mirroring the control group's response. The 217th shot resulted in a modest increase. Despite the extreme number of doses, the man did not experience significant side effects, as reported by the researchers.
"In summary, our case report shows that SARS-CoV-2 hypervaccination did not lead to adverse events and increased the quantity of spike-specific antibodies and T cells without having a strong positive or negative effect on the intrinsic quality of adaptive immune responses," the study reads. "While we found no signs of SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections in [the man] to date, it cannot be clarified whether this is causally related to the hypervaccination regimen. Importantly, we do not endorse hypervaccination as a strategy to enhance adaptive immunity," they noted.
They also examined various markers to assess the functioning of his adaptive immune system, which includes T cells and B cells - the two main cell types in this system. Contrary to concerns that frequent exposure to the virus through hypervaccination might lead to immune fatigue, the study found that in this case, hypervaccination increased the quantity of T cells and B cell products without compromising the quality of the adaptive immune system.
Explaining further, Dr Kilian Schober explained in a news release, "If you take the allegory of the immune system as an army, the number of soldiers is higher, but the soldiers themselves are not different...The observation that no noticeable side effects were triggered in spite of this extraordinary hypervaccination indicates that the drugs have a good degree of tolerability,” he added.