On June 3 2021, a man aged about 60 in Magdeburg, Germany received his first COVID shot from Johnson & Johnson. It was a single-dose vaccine, but he decided to get more. Within the following months, the man took the AstraZeneca vaccine, a second dose of AstraZeneca, and added a Pfizer shot. His inoculations continued to increase rapidly, and by January 2022, he had taken at least 49 COVID vaccines.
Suspected by employees at a local vaccination center, the police were informed that this man might have had up to 90 jabs. However, he claimed to have taken 217 COVID shots by November. His extraordinary case reached German researchers who interviewed him and collected samples to evaluate the effects of, what they termed, hypervaccination.
Although his identity remains undisclosed, the term given for his condition in The Lancet’s Publication is ‘HIM’. There are other known ‘hypervaccinated’ cases such as a retired postman in India and a New Zealand man with 12 and 10 jabs respectively. However, ‘HIM’s’ case is unique as he had his 217 shots within almost two and a half years, with up to two shots in some days of early 2022. His vaccination preference seemed to lean more towards Pfizer and Moderna, with some doses of AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, and of course, Johnson & Johnson.
The man’s motives remain speculative. Despite the absence of a publicly known reason, he went on with the unnecessary inoculations even after his plan was discovered by the authorities. The paper reflects that while vaccination is not a public health guidance, ‘HIM’ surprisingly never contracted COVID, according to antigen, PCR tests, and blood work.
Although a link could be inferred between his 217 jabs and his resistance to the virus, it remains unconfirmed. The authors pointed out that while hypervaccination had increased the quantity of antibodies and T cells to fight off the virus, there was no significant enhancement in the quality of the immune response. The man could have attained similar protection with a standard number of three to four vaccinations.
Unexpectedly, with such a grand number of jabs, ‘HIM’ experienced no adverse effects. Even the rare expected side effects like myocarditis, pericarditis, or Guillain-Barr Syndrome were absent. Furthermore, no minor side effects were reported. This extraordinary endurance against side effects and his continued fine health implicitly offer an advertisement for vaccines.
The weirdest revelation of this case, besides the absence of any side effects, is its contradiction with immunological intuition and the reminder that immunology still has unknown margins despite four years of battling the pandemic.
The authors emphasized that their research does not endorse hypervaccination for immune system enhancement.
