Immunogenicity After 6 Months of BNT162b2 Vaccination in Frail or Disabled Nursing Home Residents

Note: All values are medians (interquartile range). Comparisons are made using Mann–Whitney U-test and Kruskal–Wallis test when necessary.
Abbreviations: COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; GDS, Global Deterioration Scale from Reisberg.
*p < 0.05; **p < 0.001.

Authors and Disclosures

Sergio Salmerón Ríos MD, PhD¹, Elisa Belén Cortés Zamora RN^2,3, Almudena Avendaño Céspedes RN, PhD^2–4, Luis Romero Rizos MD, PhD^2–4, Pedro Manuel Sánchez-Jurado MD, PhD^2–4, Ginés Sánchez-Nievas MD⁵, Marta Mas Romero RN², María Teresa Tabernero Sahuquillo BE², José Joaquín Blas Señalada MD⁶, Antonio Murillo Romero MD⁷, Inmaculada García Nogueras MD, PhD¹, Juan de Dios Estrella Cazalla MD^2,3,8, Fernando Andrés-Pretel BS⁹, Volker Martin Lauschke PhD^10,11 , Justin Stebbing MD, PhD¹² and Pedro Abizanda MD, PhD<sup>2–4

1</sup>Residencia de Mayores San Vicente de Paúl, Diputación de Albacete, Albacete, Spain
²Department of Geriatrics, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Albacete, Spain
³CIBERFES, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Madrid, Spain
⁴Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
⁵Department of Rheumatology, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Albacete, Spain
⁶Department of Microbiology, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Albacete, Spain
⁷Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Albacete, Spain
⁸Residencia de Mayores Núñez de Balboa, Albacete, Spain
⁹Department of Statistics, Foundation of the National Paraplegics Hospital of Toledo, Toledo, Spain
¹⁰Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
¹¹Dr Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, Germany
¹²Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK

Correspondence
Pedro Abizanda, Department of Geriatrics, Hospital Perpetuo Socorro, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, C/Seminario 4, Albacete 02006, Spain. Email: pabizanda@sescam.jccm.es

Conflict of Interest
Justin Stebbing declares his conflicts at https://www.nature.com/onc/editors. All other authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Author Contributions
Sergio Salmerón Ríos: Design of the work, data interpretation, drafting of the work, final approval of the version to be published, agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Marta Mas Romero, Elisa Belén Cortés Zamora, María Teresa Tabernero Sahuquillo, Inmaculada García Nogueras, Juan de Dios Estrella Cazalla, Antonio Murillo Romero: Data acquisition, drafting of the work, final approval of the version to be published, agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Luis Romero Rizos, Pedro Manuel Sánchez-Jurado: Data analysis and interpretation, critical revision for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be published, agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Pedro Abizanda, Justin Stebbing, Volker Lauschke: Design of the work, data analysis and interpretation, drafting of the work, critical revision for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be published, agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. All authors had a role in writing the final manuscript and approved the final version.

Sidebar

Key Points

• Older adults in long-term care facilities vaccinated with two doses of BNT162b2 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine lose 77.6% of antibody titers between 1 and 6 months after vaccination.

• Age, sex, comorbidities, and cognitive status do not affect kinetics or extent of antibody decline.

• Pre-vaccination COVID-19 significantly reduces the decline in antibody titers and constitutes the only independent predictor of titer evolution.

Why Does This Paper Matter?

Older adults in long-term care facilities lose SARS-CoV-2 antibodies during 6 months after the second BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. A history of pre-vaccination COVID-19 was the only parameter that ameliorated the observed antibody decline. These data support the immunization with a third dose in this vulnerable, high-risk population.