COVID-19 Immunity Could Last for Years, Studies Say

[Northerner]

Immunity to the novel coronavirus could last for a year — and possibly longer — particularly after COVID-19 vaccination, according to The New York Times .

Two recent studies indicate that most people who contracted COVID-19, recovered and then got vaccinated later may not need a booster shot. Those who were never infected and then got vaccinated may need a booster shot later, the newspaper reported.

Both studies looked at people who were exposed to COVID-19 about a year ago. In a study published Monday in the journal Nature, scientists found that certain immune cells may survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected and later vaccinated. Those immune cells may create antibodies whenever needed.

In another study published on the bioRxiv pre-print server, researchers found that these memory B cells can grow and strengthen for at least 12 months after an initial infection.

COVID-19 Immunity Could Last for Years, Studies Say

Two recent studies indicate that most people who contracted COVID-19, recovered and then got vaccinated later may not need a booster shot.

www.medscape.com

Headline seems a little hyperbolic, given it's only been around a year 😱

 

[pm133]

Immunity to the novel coronavirus could last for a year — and possibly longer — particularly after COVID-19 vaccination, according to The New York Times .

Two recent studies indicate that most people who contracted COVID-19, recovered and then got vaccinated later may not need a booster shot. Those who were never infected and then got vaccinated may need a booster shot later, the newspaper reported.

Both studies looked at people who were exposed to COVID-19 about a year ago. In a study published Monday in the journal Nature, scientists found that certain immune cells may survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected and later vaccinated. Those immune cells may create antibodies whenever needed.

In another study published on the bioRxiv pre-print server, researchers found that these memory B cells can grow and strengthen for at least 12 months after an initial infection.

COVID-19 Immunity Could Last for Years, Studies Say

Two recent studies indicate that most people who contracted COVID-19, recovered and then got vaccinated later may not need a booster shot.

www.medscape.com

Headline seems a little hyperbolic, given it's only been around a year 😱

To be fair, it's no more hyperbolic than the stream of fear-mongering headlines warning that every variant could be the one that finally wipes us out.

It's nice to see something a bit more positive for once - even if the claims are a little premature.

 

[mikeyB]

It’s about time someone started to remember the full immune system rather than antibodies floating around the body.

I’m not worried about getting measles - I had it in childhood - but you won’t find antibodies against it in my blood, unless the virus attacks me.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

It’s about time someone started to remember the full immune system rather than antibodies floating around the body.

I think antibodies are easiest to measure.

The worry seemed to be that we don't seem to get long lasting immunity from the coronaviruses that cause colds, so maybe this one would be similar. (No guarantee that it would be, but it seems to me like a reasonable fear.)

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Mike Yeadon has been asking the same question about why this isn't being mentioned anymore.

But it is being mentioned. It's just that antibodies are much easier to measure, and at least some studies suggest they're present for ~6 months or so, so provide a useful measure. But definitely an incomplete one.

Here's an article from October last year by him, suggesting the UK was basically at herd immunity so the pandemic would die off shortly (spoiler: it didn't die out then). (A number of the other lockdown skeptics have written similar things. Like Yeadon, not just once, but repeatedly claiming that the pandemic is (in the UK) nearly over.)

DR MIKE YEADON:Three facts No 10's experts got wrong

DR MIKE YEADON:On Monday more than 30million Britons will be under Tier Two and Three restrictions.We will then have days - a few weeks at best - until the inevitable total lockdown.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[mikeyB]

Antibodies might well be easier to measure, @Bruce Stephens, but that’s irrelevant to long lasting immunity.

By the way, we do get long lasting immunity to cold viruses. It’s just that there are more than a hundred viruses that cause colds. They tend to be geographically located, so folk get used to their local collection if they live in an area long enough. They are the folk who say they never get colds.

That’s only pragmatic evidence, of course. Nobody would go checking for antibodies or T cell evidence in someone who has a cold, so whether it is due to a rhinovirus, adenovirus or coronavirus is neither here nor there. About 20% of common colds are due to coronaviruses.