- A combination of breakthrough infection and vaccine can result in a hybrid “super immunity”.
- antibodies are important to prevent that first assault in the body.
- people who have been vaccinated, boosted and have natural immunity will fair the best.
As per an article by News Nation, as the highly infectious variant of covid, omicron starts subsiding it leaves millions of people with antibodies. Research shows how a combination can result in super immunity.
Omicron and super immunity
Omicron cases are finally subsiding after the highly infectious variant washed over the United States, leaving millions of people with antibodies against the coronavirus.
Some people who have recovered from omicron, especially those who were previously vaccinated and boosted, may feel invincible when it comes to reinfection.
A recent study from researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) suggests that a combination of breakthrough infection and vaccine can result in a hybrid “super immunity” – regardless of whether the infection comes before or after vaccination.
How long will the immune system’s boost last?
“About three to six months,” said Dr Peter Chin Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. “That’s kind of when some people’s antibodies will start going down, where they will potentially be at risk for reinfection.”
When antibodies do start to diminish, however, it doesn’t mean the immune system has forgotten how to fight the virus.
“The antibodies are important to prevent that first assault, but the inside immune system, T cells and B cells, they remain active for a long time,” Dr. Chin Hong said.
Omicron starting to wane
Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, said this week that we are heading out of the “full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19” and we can likely expect local governments – and even individuals – to start making more of the virus management decisions themselves going forward.
In fact, we could even see “a good three to six months of a COVID vacation if no other variant comes along,” Dr Chin Hong said.
As omicron antibodies start to wane in the fall or winter, he added, people who have been vaccinated, boosted and have natural immunity will fair the best.
“If people are relying on just natural exposure to infection, and they got the original variant two years ago, they might get sick, because those T cells – it’s like just getting one dose of vaccine may be,” Chin Hong said. “But when you get the combination vaccine and natural infection, that’s the Holy Grail. That’s hybrid immunity. That’s better than anything.”
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Source: News Nation
