a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine may help some people who are immunocompromised france is handing out third shots of the twodose vaccines to cancer patients and others with immune system impairments in the united states patients like these are on their owncreditamanda lucier for the new york timespublished july 4 2021updated oct 27 2021when it came to coronavirus vaccination the third time was the charm for esther jones a dialysis nurse in rural oregon after two doses of the pfizerbiontech vaccine failed to jolt her immune system into producing antibodies she sought out a third this time the moderna shotit worked blood tests revealed a reasonable antibody response although lower than what would be detected in healthy people she received a fourth dose last month in hopes of boosting the levels even morems jones 45 had a kidney transplant in 2010 to prevent rejection of the organ she has taken drugs that suppress the immune response ever since she expected to have trouble responding to a coronavirus vaccine and enrolled in one of the few studies so far to test the utility of a third dose in people with weak immune systemssince april health care providers in france have routinely given a third dose of a twodose vaccine to people with certain immune conditions the number of organ transplant recipients who had antibodies increased to 68 percent four weeks after the third dose from 40 percent after the second dose one team of french researchers recently reportedthe study in which ms jones enrolled has turned up similar results in 30 organ transplant recipients who procured third doses on their ownbeing vulnerable to infection even after inoculation is very scary and frustrating for immunocompromised people said dr dorry segev a transplant surgeon at johns hopkins university who led the study they have to continue to act unvaccinated until we figure out a way to give them better immunitybut in the united states there is no concerted effort by federal agencies or vaccine manufacturers to test this approach leaving people with low immunity with more questions than answers the centers for disease control and prevention the food and drug administration and the national institutes of health in fact recommend even against testing to find out who is protected and academic scientists are stymied by the rules that limit access to the vaccinesthere should be already a national study looking at posttransplant patients getting booster shots said dr balazs halmos an oncologist at the montefiore medical center in the bronx who led a study showing that some cancer patients did not respond to the vaccines it shouldnt be our little team here in the bronx trying to figure this outan estimated 5 percent of the population is considered to be immunocompromised the list of causes is long some cancers organ transplants chronic liver disease kidney failure and dialysis and drugs like rituxan steroids and methotrexate which are taken by roughly 5 million people for disorders from rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis to