Scientists Studied Man Who Claimed To Have Had 217 COVID Shots. Here’s What They Found.

A 62-year-old man who claims to have received 217 COVID-19 vaccinations shows no signs of adverse events linked to the shots and appears to have stronger immunity against the virus than others, researchers said as they cautioning others to not get more than the recommended vaccinations.

In a study published Monday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers in Germany said they were surprised by the findings, expecting the man’s immune cells to be less effective after becoming used to the antigens administered through eight different vaccines.

“Over all, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary,” Katharina Kocher, one of the leading authors of the study, said in a news release.

Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen in Germany said they reached out to the man, who is not identified in the study, after seeing his unusual story in newspaper reports.

According to the study, a public prosecutor had collected evidence to officially support 130 of his claimed 217 vaccinations while investigating him for possible fraud. No criminal charges were filed against him.

The researchers invited the man, who said the shots took place over 29 months, to undergo various testing, and “he was very, very interested in doing so,” said Dr. Kilian Schober from FAU’s Institute of Microbiology.

As part of the study, the man, who said he received the multiple shots for “private reasons,” permitted researchers to study various blood tests that he had undergone in recent years, including samples that had been frozen. They also took samples of blood from him after he received yet another vaccination dose, which was done “at his own