Global Research: 20-08-2024,
Children ages 5-11 who received two doses of Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine had heightened levels of a type of antibody suggestive of an altered immune system response one year after vaccination, a new peer-reviewed study revealed.
The team of German researchers, led by Dr. Robin Kobbe with the Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, looked at blood samples of 14 healthy children the day the children received dose one of Pfizer’s shot, one month afterward and one year after the children received dose two.
Screenshot from PIDJ
A year after the second dose, they found increased levels of IgG4 antibodies in the children’s blood, suggesting that their immune system switched its type of immune system response.
IgG4 is one of the four subclasses of immunoglobin, or antibodies, produced by plasma cells in the blood.
While prior studies have found elevated levels of IgG4 in adults after repeated mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, Kobbe and his co-authors said their investigation is the first showing it happens in children, too.
The researchers wrote in their report published July 30 in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, “IgG4 responses should gain more attention in health and disease, especially in the context of mRNA vaccination.”
“Understanding the unusual mechanism triggering IgG4 production is crucial,” they added,