Medicine

Your body clock has seasonal rhythms and it matters for vaccines

AI Insight

The human circadian clock, commonly understood as a 24-hour biological rhythm, also appears to operate on longer seasonal cycles. Emerging evidence suggests these seasonal biological rhythms may influence how effectively the immune system responds to vaccines. Researchers are investigating how the time of year in which vaccination occurs could modulate immune response strength and duration.


If seasonal body clock rhythms demonstrably affect vaccine efficacy, public health authorities may need to reconsider vaccination scheduling strategies to optimize immune responses across populations. This could have significant implications for annual vaccine programs, such as influenza campaigns.


We think of our body clock ticking over on a 24-hour cycle, but evidence is growing that it has seasonal rhythms, which could affect our response to vaccines

Source: Your body clock has seasonal rhythms and it matters for vaccines