Should you avoid alcohol when getting a coronavirus vaccine?

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2262654-should-you-avoid-alcohol-when-getting-a-coronavirus-vaccine/?utm_source=nsday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NSDAY_151220

11 December 2020
By Graham Lawton

Drinking alcohol after getting a coronavirus vaccine can significantly blunt the immune response and potentially render the vaccine ineffective, according to a leading Russian scientist. “We strongly recommend refraining from alcohol for three days after each injection,” Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, which is developing the Sputnik V vaccine, told New Scientist.

This warning doesn’t just apply to the Sputnik V vaccine, but all covid-19 vaccines and indeed all other vaccines. “This is quite obvious,” he said.

Existing scientific literature on alcohol and the immune system shows that excess alcohol is an immunosuppressant so people who drink a lot are more susceptible to infections. “Heavy drinkers have many problems and poor immune function is one of them,” says immunologist Eleanor Riley at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

In trials, about 10 per cent of people don’t become immune after receiving the Sputnik V vaccine and the figure is similar for other vaccines. The reasons for this are unknown. Whether alcohol could be a factor hasn’t been investigated.

A 2012 study by researchers in Sweden found that low-to-moderate alcohol consumption slightly suppressed the inflammatory response to a vaccine against bacterial pneumonia, but had no impact on the immune response. The researchers defined this level of alcohol consumption as an average intake of less than 30 grams a day, about the same as three vodkas.

Gintsburg said that drinking 300 grams of vodka – about 12 UK measures, which contain a total of about 120 grams of alcohol – suppresses antibody production. But one glass of champagne would be OK, he said.

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Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is funding the Sputnik V programme, says: “It applies to all vaccines, there is nothing particular about Sputnik vaccine that makes it more prone to alcohol consumption.”


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tags: drug use, drug abuse,