If You're Double-Vaxxed and Boosted You're Well Protected Says New Research


 It's not very often that I get to post good news on this blog, but today is one of the times. New research says that if you're double-vaxxed and boosted, you're good—probably for a long time, and probably against a wide variety of current and potential future variants.

It has been known for some time that levels of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 wane in the months following the second vaccine dose. Protection may decrease substantially, in one study dropping from 90+% to 70%. This is why last fall the CDC authorized booster shots for anybody who wanted one.

Recent studies have come out (one published here, another one in pre-print so not yet reviewed) showing that vaxxed and boosted people's immune systems are primed for recognizing all kinds of SARS spike proteins and targeting them if provoked.

The effect isn't from antibodies per se, which wane like they always have. But our immune systems have "memory" cells that can recognize an infection and trigger processes to quickly regenerate antibodies to fight it. Vaccination promotes the development of these cells.

The research suggests that because the boosters were administered before the effects of the second shots completely faded, our immune systems got turbocharged, resulting in a big boost in memory cells. The cells also diversified, which means they should be able to handle many different existing variants and presumably future ones too.

Why didn't we know this sooner? Because it's relatively easy to process blood samples and look for antibodies. It's a lot harder and more time consuming to process tissue and look for cells. You can learn more from this explainer in the NY Times. 





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