Years of drinking water pollution: Does the corona vaccination work worse in Altötting?

Due to years of contamination of the drinking water in the Altötting district, many people here are heavily contaminated with the chemical PFOA.

Does this affect your corona vaccination protection?

Altötting - It has now been several years since harmful chemicals were discovered in drinking water in the Altötting district. But by 2017, people had already been exposed to PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) for decades. It has also been investigated for some time what effects the substances have on various diseases and the immune system of people who have above-average amounts of the chemicals in their blood. The coronavirus * has also played a decisive role in this since last year.

In addition to PFOA, the chemical that primarily affects the people in the Altötting district, almost 5,000 other chemicals belong to the group of perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS for short).

A research team from the Danish University in Odense found in a study in early 2021 that people who carry larger amounts of this PFAS in their body are more likely to have a severe course of Covid-19.

To do this, the scientists examined the concentration of various PFAS in 323 patients who were infected with corona.

Altötting district: does PFOA exposure affect the effect of the corona vaccination?

What is currently particularly worrying for the citizens of the Altötting district: According to studies, the immune response to vaccinations also seems to be influenced by the concentration of PFAS in the body. The activists of the initiative for clean drinking water "BINT" ("Citizens' Initiative Network Drinking Water") therefore urgently demand further clarification and ask: "Could chemicals such as PFOA affect or even weaken the antibody response to a vaccination against Corona * in polluted citizens?"

In March 2020, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) pointed out, based on a joint study with the Charité in Berlin, that small children with high PFOA levels in their blood develop a lower number of vaccine antibodies.

The effects of vaccinations against influenza, tetanus and diphtheria were found.

The good news: Despite lower antibodies, the existing safety margins with vaccinations ultimately do not lead to reduced vaccination protection.

So there is currently no evidence that vaccination protection is lower or, conversely, that there is a higher risk of infection with the respective disease

PFOA exposure in Altötting: blood test shows significantly fewer antibodies against Sars-CoV-2

Carmen Seehuber is contaminated with PFOA herself. A level of 42 micrograms PFOA can be detected in her blood - a value above 10 is already alarming, as she

explains

to the

. Because she too worries whether the corona vaccination is working properly for her, she took action herself. The woman from Altötting in Upper Bavaria tells the

. “I'm contaminated with PFOA, and that worries me,” Seehuber tells the portal. “I've heard that the vaccination doesn't work that way. I want to know now. ”And with that she went to her family doctor. She took her blood and was able to give the all-clear: Ms. Seehuber was protected against the corona virus. Even so, she has significantly fewer antibodies in her blood than other people who have been vaccinated.

In order to see an actual connection between the exposure to PFOA and the effect of a vaccination, one would have to examine several hundred people, however, said Professor Carsten Watzl from the German Society for Immunology to the

.

The “BINT” activists from Bavaria are calling for exactly that on their website: More research and education.

PFOA exposure in the Altötting district: next blood test planned for 2022

Because in addition to the fact that there is generally little knowledge about the effect of PFOA on a vaccination, the corona vaccines from Biontech and Moderna are also novel RNA-based vaccines.

It is therefore particularly difficult to predict whether the corona vaccination protection can be influenced by PFOA, said Professor Dr.

Wolfgang Völkel from the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) the "BINT" activists. 

(By the way: Our Bavaria newsletter informs you about all the important stories from the Free State. Register here.)

According to its own information, the district office in Altötting currently has no capacity to clarify the consequences of exposure to PFOA.

The corona pandemic is currently tying up almost all of the health department's resources.

On request, the

LGL told the

that new blood tests in the region are expected to be planned for 2022.

It has not yet been determined whether the vaccine antibodies will be tested at the same time.

(iwe)