Oh, what a shocker, folks! It turns out that vaccines, those magical little shots we’ve been rolling up our sleeves for, might not be the immortal elixir of invincibility against COVID-19 for eternity—especially if you have COPD. Who would’ve thought, right? In a stunning display of retrospective peek-a-boo, the Hungarian COVID-19 registry was combed through to see just how well these vaccines held up over time during the Delta variant’s reign of terror from September to December 2021.

So, we’ve got a whopping 373,962 cases to play with, neatly split into two groups: the COPD patients and their doppelgangers in the control group, matched so perfectly you’d think they were separated at birth. Both groups were practically twinsies in age and gender ratio, because why not?

Now, hold onto your hats: among the unvaccinated, it was like a mirror match—no difference in infection or hospitalization risk. But for the vaccinated crowd, the COPD patients had their vaccine effectiveness drop off a tad quicker for hospitalization. And, lo and behold, after about 215 to 240 days, the vaccine’s superpowers started to fizzle out for everyone.

The number crunching, courtesy of a time-stratified multivariate Cox analysis (because simple is just too mainstream), showed that the COPD group was always a bit more likely to catch the bug or land in the hospital. The hazard ratios were like subtle hints that maybe, just maybe, vaccines aren’t a one-and-done deal.

In conclusion, the study’s grand revelation is that COPD patients might just benefit from a little booster action. It’s almost as if vaccines are like milk and have an expiration date—who knew? So, let’s roll up those sleeves again, because it’s revaccination time!