A new study recommends giving elderly people their second dose on schedule.
As B.C. prepares to relax visitation restrictions at long-term care facilities on April 1, new research shows that a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine produces a much weaker antibody response in long-term care residents than it does in younger, healthy adults.
That could have serious consequences for elderly people who live in the general community and may have to wait up to four months for their second dose.
“There are many people who are frail and elderly living in the community, and there is no reason to believe their immune systems are any different than people in long-term care,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Marc Romney, who is a professor at the University of B.C. and a medical leader in virology at St. Paul’s Hospital.