Evaluation of the antibody response and adverse reactions of the BNT162b2 vaccine of participants with prior COVID-19 infection in Japan

Mitsunaga, T.; Ohtaki, Y.; Seki, Y.; Yoshioka, M.; Mori, H.; Suzuka, M.; Mashiko, S.; Takeda, S.; Mashiko, K.

Objective Vaccination programs are important to preventing COVID-19 infection. BNT162b2 is new type of vaccine, and previous studies have shown that the antibody response was significantly elevated in patients with prior COVID-19 infection after the first dose of BNT162b2 vaccination. However, no study has evaluated the efficacy of the vaccination or the adverse reactions of people with prior COVID-19 infection in Japan. The aim of this study is to evaluate the antibody titer and adverse reactions of BNT162b2 vaccine among participants with prior COVID-19 infection in Japan. Methods The data for this prospective study was collected between April 15, 2021, and June 9, 2021. All of the hospital staff who received the BNT162b2 vaccine were included in this study and were sorted into either the prior infection group or the control group. We collected the data of adverse reactions through self-reporting and calculated the anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific antibody titer for all participants. Results The antibody titer of the prior-infection group in first antibody test was significantly higher than that of the control group in the second antibody test. There was no significant difference in adverse reactions between the prior infection group receiving its first vaccination and the control group receiving its second vaccination. Furthermore, the history of prior infection was not related to local and systemic adverse reactions in the multivariate logistic regression analysis. Conclusion Our study shows that the antibody response following the first vaccination in the prior COVID-19 infection group was found to be comparable to that of the second vaccination in the control group; however, the evaluation of adverse reactions was inadequate and further, large-scale studies are needed.