Being overweight can impair the body’s antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection but not to the protection offered by vaccination, a new research has revealed. The research, published in the journal Clinical & Translational Immunology, was led by University of Queensland.

“We’ve previously shown that being overweight – not just being obese – increases the severity of SARS-CoV-2. But this work shows that being overweight creates an impaired antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection but not to vaccination,” said research lead Marcus Tong. The team collected blood samples from people who had recovered from COVID-19 and had not been reinfected during the study period, approximately 3 months and 13 months post-infection.