![]() But to generate really high-quality antibodies, those cells need to go through an intense kind of training camp inside the lymph nodes, and that process takes more than three weeks. ![]() Immune cells in the blood, known as B cells, can start producing antibodies within a week. The immune system needs time to ramp up after that first dose. Bhattacharya plans to hold off on a second dose for his children until eight weeks. That decision, he said, “was more about public health and reducing community transmission, and completing this process quickly.” Dr. Pfizer didn’t choose three weeks between doses because it was the perfect interval. “From an immunological standpoint, it makes more sense to wait,” said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. Many experts agree that three weeks between doses is too short an interval for an optimal immune response. She has been swayed, she said, by the studies showing that a longer interval between doses leads to a better immune response. Trish Johnson, a financial adviser in Oakland, Calif., plans to push her son’s second dose back to six or even eight weeks. “When do I need to feel good, now or later?” ![]() “This is quick acting, but this is long-lasting,” Jerry said. Ishal of an episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry tells a story about picking a cold medicine from a wall of options at the drugstore. Is it more important for children to have good protection sooner? Or a better, more lasting protection later? The conundrum reminds Dr. “I think that’s a hard call,” said Aubree Gordon, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. With the United States on the cusp of another major wave of cases and the new Omicron variant spreading rapidly, delaying means leaving children vulnerable to infection and illness for longer. Still, the potential benefits of waiting for the second dose must be balanced against the real risks of catching and spreading Covid during the wait.
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