A 62-year-old man from Magdeburg, Germany, purposely received 217 COVID-19 vaccine doses of eight different vaccine types within 29 months. That’s more than one vaccine dose every four days.
In a case report published on March 4 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers said the shots didn’t have a significant positive or negative effect on the immune response, nor were any adverse events “attributable to hypervaccination.”
The researchers heard about the man’s case through newspaper articles and contacted him to see if he would be willing to undergo testing, the authors said on Friedrich-Alexander University’s website. Prosecutors initially opened an investigation into the case and confirmed the man had received 130 vaccinations over nine months. Additional doses were self-reported.
According to the study, the man first received the Johnson & Johnson shot in June 2021. His subsequent vaccine doses included AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer’s monovalent, bivalent, and updated vaccines.
The man’s vaccination history shows he received 16 shots in 2021, 48 shots in January of 2022, 34 shots in February, and six in March before prosecutors intervened. On some days, the man received as many as three vaccine doses in one day.
Before he could get any more vaccinations, the man was detained by police at a vaccination center on the suspicion of reselling vaccination cards to third parties at a time when proof of vaccination was required to frequent certain venues. No criminal charges were ever filed and the man continued to receive vaccinations.
Immunity Waned Despite Hypervaccination
To investigate the immunological effects of hypervaccination, researchers analyzed the man’s medical information, blood, and saliva samples. Sixty-two tests from November 2019 to October 2023 showed hypervaccination increased the quantity but not the quality of adaptive immunity.
The adaptive immune system consists of specific cells and antibodies that take over if the innate immune system can’t destroy a pathogen. The adaptive immune system can also remember pathogens so it can respond faster the next time it’s encountered.
According to the study, the man had large numbers of T-effector cells against SARS-CoV-2—and even more when compared to a control group of 29 people who had only received three mRNA vaccine doses—but antibody levels dropped as they do in patients who received the usual recommended doses.
Although The New York Times erroneously reported that the study found “robust immunity,” it actually showed that despite having hundreds of shots, immunity waned. This is, of course, ignoring the fact that studies show that despite what happens with your immune system, COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent disease or the transmission of it, so in essence, provide no immunity to begin with.
Although the man had no signs of having had COVID-19, as confirmed by repeated antigen and PCR tests the study found that his immune response could only be sustained through continuous revaccination.
Senior author Dr. Kilian Schober said, “These super-high levels are not sustainable” and eventually dropped to normal levels.
Throughout the entire hypervaccination schedule, the man didn’t report any vaccine-related side effects, but the study didn’t disclose the man’s health status—whether he had pre-existing conditions, conditions that worsened, or health conditions that developed during the 29-month period. The study only states that any abnormalities discovered through testing were not attributable to COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Schober said that other patients who receive that many doses could experience side effects, making it unwise for people to disregard medical advice to receive more than the recommended number of vaccinations.
The study’s authors said that despite their findings, they do not support hypervaccination as a strategy to improve adaptive immunity, nor are the results sufficient to make far-reaching recommendations for the general public.
