I’ve read about several instances in in which health care workers diluted COVID vaccine improperly, sometimes even giving it in undiluted form.
What happens in these cases? Is this just a waste of vaccine, or can a large dose potentially provoke a dangerously excessive immune response?
Apparently nothing happens.
“This person at this time will certainly not have side effects,” said Dr. Antonella Vicenti, director of infectious diseases at Noa Hospital. She said Pfizer studies had shown that people who receive up to 5-times the normal dosage did not suffer any consequences. She also said that patients in Israel and Germany who had accidentally been given 5-times the usual dosage also showed no adverse reactions.
So much for the nutty anti-vaxxers claiming that it’s poison.
That kind of begs the question “Is more vaccine, sometimes, better?”
A vaccine is not a “medicine” that requires strict adherence to dosing amounts. This is why the amount of vaccine is the same for a 12 year old child and a 300 pound man.
The vaccine operates in an entirely different way from (for example) Acetaminophen. Medication like Acetaminophen will have a direct effect on your body chemistry, perhaps by blocking certain enzymes (researchers are still not sure on this). This is why you can overdose on Tylenol; It will screw with your body chemistry too much.
Vaccines initiate your bodies immune response. You’ll get the same response with 1 dose of vaccine as with 6 doses. All 6 doses does is waste 5 doses - Doses 2 through 5 really have no effect.
Of course, you can have too little vaccine - if it is diluted too much, there will not be enough to trigger an immune response in your body. Unless you like homeopathy, in which case a glass of water contains every medication in the entire universe at once.
Assertion not in evidence. It’s not like we know that the current dose size is the optimal (or maximally useful) size.
We just don’t have much data on how much dose size matters. The dose size that was tested is sufficient for a very good immune response. Would you get a better response at 2x dose, or just as good a response as 1/3 dose? We don’t know (although there are fractional dosing trials ongoing).
We know how previous vaccines work, and how the immune response works. Immunization is not a brand new field. Of course there will be research, and may even be adjustments to the vaccine in future. The basic points still stand. A vaccine is not given in dosages like a medicine.
The rest of your post is basically correct. The part I quoted is overreaching.