Out of curiosity, why do vaccines like polio protect us for life, but ones for coronavirus only for a couple of years?
Probably because the latter has a higher mutation rate.
Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
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Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
The consensus I’m hearing from epidemiologists is the mRNA vaccines should offer better immunity than infection. So it would seem the 8 month for immunity after infection should be a lower bound for the vaccine effectiveness.
As much as I'd like that to be true, I think it's impossible to separate that statement from the political pressure to motivate vaccination. ie, if the opposite was true — vaccination did not provide the same strength of immunity as infection — no epidemiologist would ever state this publicly. So I'll be happy if it's true, but this statement doesn't move my belief-meter one way or another.
Do you know why there’s political pressure to motivate vaccination?
Because vaccines work.
Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#43Out of curiosity, why do vaccines like polio protect us for life, but ones for coronavirus only for a couple of years?
Because the coronaviruses mutate much more quickly, to the point where your antibodies are no longer effective against the new strain.
Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had this exact question and asked around before finding out a friend's brother specializes in immunology. Apparently two separate exposures triggers a much longer lasting immune response, and because of the nature of the vaccine it's much more targeted to one specific aspect of the virus, and consequently more potent in a way. Moderna also made a statement that they expected their vaccine to last for 2 years based…
My original intuition was it would be the opposite. This actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing and correcting my line of thinking on it.
All the data and research I've seen so far show that they are roughly equivalent. Here are some more articles:
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-02-24/coronavirus... https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.14.21251715v
Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#45Out of curiosity, why do vaccines like polio protect us for life, but ones for coronavirus only for a couple of years?
It hasn’t yet been possible to measure if the coronavirus vaccine protects for more than a couple of years. The first human trial subjects only received it 14 months ago.
Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#46This is promising. Anecdotally though, I know people in India who got covid (with symptoms) twice or even thrice over the last 12 months. I imagine antibody generation is different for different people, and/or response to variants of the virus is different.
Not that I doubt you, but it is pretty common here in the USA to _assume_ every cold/allergy etc. is COVID-19, even without a positive PCR or anti-gen test. Did the folks you know get positively tested, or did sx just match?
So not to pour more anecdotal fuel on the fire, so to speak, but I know of someone who had a confirmed case of COVID last spring in the US, then was tested for antibodies this spring and had few, and then caught it again in India a few weeks ago. Each time was symptomatic. Again, a single data point, I'd be happy to believe that there's lasting immunity.
Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#47[deleted]
Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#48SINGAPORE - The Republic has seen 26 cases of Covid-19 reinfection as Monday (May 10), Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said in a ministerial statement in Parliament on Tuesday.
Such reinfections are known to be possible in both overseas and local cases, he noted, but it is still unclear why they occur.
The minister said investigations are ongoing to determine if reinfections are due to a general waning of immunity levels over time, or a lack of cross-protection, despite a previous infection, against specific variants of the coronavirus that a person is exposed to for the first time.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/parliament-2...
Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#49Out of curiosity, why do vaccines like polio protect us for life, but ones for coronavirus only for a couple of years?
We aren't entirely certain how long the corona vaccines will be protective.
Part of it is that there's tens of millions of people infected with coronavirus right now, giving it lots of room to mutate. There's maybe a few hundred or a few thousand people infected with polio.
Re: Lasting immunity found after recovery from Covid-19
#50I’m very surprised that “proof of immunity” isn’t an acceptable alternative to a vaccine for things like travel or work. It seems it’s either vaccine or bust. Anyone know why this is the case?
Are there any serious checks for vaccination? I live in a small town and people here aren't very concerned, so I'm asking seriously if activities are actually being gated on vaccination.
The EU is preparing to reopen international travel using a vaccine passport.
Israel reopened their society early after their final coronavirus lockdown by only allowing vaccinated to resume normal life.
The cruise lines that serve the USA and Caribbean islands are attempting to reopen while requiring all passengers to be vaccinated, but the governor of Florida is attempting to force them to allow unvaccinated passengers onboard.
It depends a lot on what country you are in and their attitudes towards vaccines and privacy.