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Researchers study whether COVID-19 survivors need both shots of vaccine

CHARLOTTE — Some people who have survived COVID-19 want to know if they need to take the two-shot vaccine, or if one would be enough to protect them.

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“I was so out of it,” said Susanna Lee, who survived COVID-19. “I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I was that sick.”

She said she doesn’t want to ever experience the illness again.

“I think if I ever got COVID again, with me having all the underlying conditions, I might leave here,” she said. “I mean actually die.”

Lee was in a hospital for a week but felt the symptoms later.

“With me being a lupus patient and already being on dialysis, I know my immune system is already very low,” she said. “But I don’t know how having COVID built up my immunity.”

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A team of 32 researchers at the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who have had COVID-19 developed between 10-45 times as many antibodies after one shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine than an average person.

Their research is also investigating if one shot for COVID-19 survivors is enough.

“I think, as with everything COVID, right now, it’s an evolving story,” said Dr. Tony Moody, director of the Duke Civics Vaccine Center. “One of the big things is we are not, at a point yet, where we know anything about durability, and the evolving story of what’s going on. With the variants makes it particularly challenging to know exactly how all of this is going to play out.”

Moody stressed that there are challenges with the research.

“The medical side of it is, what we would really love to know is, ‘Do you get the same magnitude of response?’” he said. “People who have been infected -- it’s a pretty wide spectrum of levels. Some people make really strong responses, and some people don’t make great responses at all. Where the vaccine -- pretty much everybody seems to make good responses.”

The research is under review. It has not changed guidance from the CDC and FDA that requires two shots of Pfizer or Moderna.