New research released Wednesday should bring comfort to covid-19 survivors worried about losing their natural immunity to the coronavirus soon. Findings suggest that in most people, a robust immune response to the virus lasts for at least eight months – and there are good signs that it could even take years.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been concerns about waning immunity. Related coronaviruses that share the common cIt is known that old people are often reinfected and spread reports of covid-19 re-infections emerged in 2020. Some studies had also suggested that antibody levels against the virus could drop significantly indoors three months.
On the other hand, immunity is one complicated mess. Antibodies aren’t the only source of immunity we get against germs like the coronavirus. And, To date, confirmed reports of reinfection still seem rare. This new study, published in Science, seems to provide the most current view of how our immune responses to the virus change over time – and the verdict is largely positive.
Scientists studied the blood of 180 volunteers who confirmed covid-19, including samples taken six months after infection. Levels of antibodies to the virus took a little dip after infection but remained stable thereafter for up to eight months in most people. T cells specific for the virus also decreased slightly after three months, but remained at a stable level after that. Meanwhile, memory B cells, which help the immune system wake up in response to a known threat and make more antibodies when needed, were actually more abundant for the sixth.month mark then one month. That’s especially encouraging, because these B cells are crucial for long-lasting immunity, the kind that lasts for years.
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The findings do not directly show that our immunity to Covid-19 will last absolutely eight months and longer. Scientists are still trying to figure out how these immune responses in the body translate into protection in the real world. But all told, 95% of the people in the study had some level of immune memory in their antibodies, B cells, and T cells to the virus five to eight months after their symptoms first started. That indicates, the authors wrote, that “durable immunity against secondary covid-19 disease is possible in most individuals.”
Antibodies are often the most important part of immunity in preventing germ re-infection. This and other research has shown that our antibody levels against the coronavirus can differ significantly from person to person. So that could explain why a few people got reinfected in such a short time, with few cases to show up just three months later. But as experts have pointed out, the other remaining aspects of our immunity should usually protect people from more serious illnesses when they are infected second time.
That said, the current pandemic situation is still very bad, with daily cases, hospital admissions, and deaths in the US Mention-high levels. IIt takes more time to think of other important questions, such as how long the immunity provided by the vaccine will last. But in a sea of bad news, there’s at least some hope to grab onto.