Can Obesity Affect Coronavirus Vaccine Efficiency? The Answer Affects 107 Million American Adults

The vaccine that is engineered to prevent people against flu viruses such as influenza and others like tetanus and rabies is known to be less effective in people who are obese. The coronavirus vaccine is also expected to be the same.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left the U.S. crippled with more than 4.6 million infected and 155,000 dead.

Governments across the world as well as people are desperately waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine and see it as a solution to the novel coronavirus. However, the efficiency of the virus in protecting people against coronavirus infection may be compromised by another epidemic that has existed long before COVID-19, that is, obesity.

There are more than 107 million adults in the U.S. alone that are obese. Considering that most of the vaccines are less effective in obese individuals, there is a little reason for the researchers to believe that the coronavirus vaccine will be any different.

"Will we have a COVID vaccine next year tailored to the obese? No way," said Raz Shaikh, who is an associate professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "Will it still work in the obese? Our prediction is no."

This means that the ability of the obese population across the world to keep themselves protected against the coronavirus, keep their families safe and also return to work safely is going to remain compromised.

America, the country whose population is considered to be one of the heaviest in the world, is likely to suffer the brunt of it. In March, a Chinese study showed that heavier individuals with COVID-19 were more likely to die as compared to lean patients.

As time progressed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that people with body mass index more than 40 (severely obese) are at the highest risk of suffering from a severe form of COVID-19. Nearly 9 percent of the American population is known to fall in that category.