mRNA vaccine immunity may be much more durable than currently believed.
Researchers are tracking immune response over 6 months and beyond. They believe the initial set of antibodies will give way to stronger antibodies after 6 months as well as B and T memory cell response.
It all depends on which type of immunity you're talking about, says immunologist Ali Ellebedy at Washington University in St. Louis. Six months after your vaccine, your body may be more ready to fight off the coronavirus than you might think.
"If you were vaccinated six months ago, your immune system has been training for six months — you are better ready to fight a COVID-19 infection," says Ellebedy.
A series of new studies, including two led by Ellebedy, suggests that mRNA vaccines like those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna trigger the immune system to establish long-term protection against severe COVID-19 — protection that likely will last several years or even longer, Ellebedy says.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...han-youd-think
About a month after the second mRNA shot, the number of antibodies in the blood reaches its peak level and then starts to decline. The antibodies themselves degrade and the cells that make them die, a study published in the journal Nature reported in June.
This happens with every vaccine, whether it's for COVID-19, the flu or measles, Bhattacharya says. "In every single immune response, there is a sharp rise in antibodies, a period of sharp decline, and then it starts to settle into a more stable nadir."
The media has largely focused on this decline of antibodies as the cause of "waning immunity." And it's true, Bhattacharya says, that this decline in antibodies, combined with the high potency of the delta variant, which began dominating many countries this year, is likely increasing the rate of infection in fully vaccinated people.
"If you get a big dose of delta, as the variant often gives, the virus can slip past the initial wall of antibodies," he says. "So I think we may be seeing some signs of that. But the [level of breakthrough infections] is probably not as dramatic as I think it's being made out to be."
These more durable antibody-producing cells start in the lymph glands and then move to the bone marrow.
The theory is that these long-lived plasma cells will produce antibodies and work in concert with memory B and T cells to fight off infections.
It may be that a lot of vaccinated people will have stronger response 8-9 months on, while they're at their nadir for antibody levels at 6 months.
Of course we'd like to see this research backed up by real-life observation. Israel's infection rate is very high so that is why they pushed aggressively into boosters but they've been giving boosters for a month now? So one would hope to see their infection rates decline.