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A small study offers the first hint that an extra dose of COVID-19 vaccines just might give some organ transplant recipients a needed boost in protection.

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Until results from clinical trials are in, Dr. Dorry Segev at Johns Hopkins Medical Center tells his transplant patients to "get vaccinated, act unvaccinated."

They should take all the precautions the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for people with no protection, such as continuing to wear masks and socially distance, he said.

When the CDC last month abruptly lifted its mask recommendations for vaccinated people, Segev said, "the world quickly got less safe for immunosuppressed people." It's now far more frightening for transplant recipients to do something as simple as grocery shopping, because they don't know which unmasked person near them is actually safe.

Segev is studying the effectiveness of a third dose, hoping "there's something we will ultimately be able to do for transplant patients."

He hopes to soon launch a formal interventional trial, providing a third shot in a clinical setting, where he can ensure safety and track participants' response.

A handful of patients already have started getting extra shots – simply showing up at vaccination centers and not admitting that they've already been vaccinated. It would be far safer, Segev said, for them to get that third dose through a clinical trial. He is now looking for volunteers at transplantvaccine.org.

"It's really important for this to be out there so people know this is happening," he said.