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94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

thetimes.co.uk

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Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#71

Post by Animats »

gpm wrote: post #55
cjlars wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these numbers comparable to OP? It's hard to reconcile that FL is at 24%, or NY at 13% w/ antibodies vs the headline.

Note that the recent numbers in the CDC chart all seem to be measuring antibodies that only appear from infection, not vaccination (indicated by a circle instead of a square in the chart), while the numbers from the article appear to be measuring antibodies that appear from either infection or vaccination, so they are not directly comparable.

Yes. Which is annoying. Both can be measured, but apparently the commercial lab data only runs one of the two antibody tests.

There's also a blood bank antibody test. That's useful as a crosscheck. People who have blood drawn for medical purposes are in general sicker than average, and those who donate blood are healthier than average. So those set bounds on the measured values.

Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#72

Post by criticaltinker »

Animats wrote: post #30
SavantIdiot wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. That's my point. It is unavoidable.

We can hope. Some people have already become ill from COVID more than once.[1] This is rare, but it happens. Immunity from vaccination seems to be stronger than immunity from having the disease, but it's too early to be sure. How long vaccine immunity lasts is an open question. So far, it's at least N months, where N is how long the vaccines have been in wide use. Beyond that is speculation. [1] https://www.brgeneral…

> Immunity from vaccination seems to be stronger than immunity from having the disease, but it's too early to be sure

Unless anyone can cite peer-reviewed sources that indicate otherwise, there doesn't appear to be any conclusive evidence on this point. In fact these publications provide evidence that naturally acquired immunity is just as effective as vaccination [1][2] ([2] hasn't been peer-reviewed yet).

> How long vaccine immunity lasts is an open question. So far, it's at least N months, where N is how long the vaccines have been in wide use. Beyond that is speculation.

I'm interested in recent peer-reviewed literature supporting this point, and would be grateful if anyone could share links.

[1] SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03647-4.pdf

[2] Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.01.21258176v...

Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#73

Post by notJim »

ekster wrote: post #31
dontreact wrote: post #3

This probably explains the previously mysterious drop in Delta cases in the UK. In the U.S. why shouldn't we just shoot for herd immunity now? Not sure how effective restrictions and mandates will be in slowing things down and the costs to mental health and quality of life are so high.

Isn’t that what is happening? I was just in the US for a couple weeks (Portland, OR) and rules were minimal and optional everywhere. Not the kind of thing that would drive mental health issues, as best I could tell.

That can't possibly be right, according to Fox News, Portland, OR is an authoritarian communist hellhole. Just glad you got out alive.

Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#74

Post by xienze »

bena wrote: post #51
ummonk wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We seem to be trying to "flatten the curve" and "slow the spread" to needlessly take extra long to get to the same final place - natural herd immunity.

Come on. It's because when we were trying to flatten the curve, there were far too many people who denied it was anything more serious than the flu and didn't take any precautions. Same with slowing the spread. People did not listen. Because they were "free critical thinkers who can reach their own conclusions thank you very much". And they were wrong. And now they've put us here.

> there were far too many people who denied it was anything more serious than the flu and didn't take any precautions.

Well apparently quite a number of people must have taken precautions, because that's the explanation for why the flu has basically disappeared off the face of the earth.

Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#75

Post by logifail »

danuker wrote: post #4

I am stunned so few governments publish such "in the wild" data. The only way to judge the effectiveness of measures is to see how many people have actually been infected, not to count "confirmed" cases. For instance, it seems only 8.8% is confirmed (or 88k out of 1 million) [1] . Add that to the 69% vaccinated with at least one dose [2], and you get 77.8% accounted for, which is less than the 95% quoted. [1] - https…

> I am stunned so few governments publish such "in the wild" data

[warning: tinfoil hat...] Can you think of an incentive for governments to be honest with such "in the wild" data?

If you were a senior politician trying to assist your government in driving up the vaccination rate, then publishing hard data that 94% of your population already have the antibiodies is hardly going to help, is it?

Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#76

Post by mixmastamyk »

bena wrote: post #51
ummonk wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We seem to be trying to "flatten the curve" and "slow the spread" to needlessly take extra long to get to the same final place - natural herd immunity.

Come on. It's because when we were trying to flatten the curve, there were far too many people who denied it was anything more serious than the flu and didn't take any precautions. Same with slowing the spread. People did not listen. Because they were "free critical thinkers who can reach their own conclusions thank you very much". And they were wrong. And now they've put us here.

Handwringing over obvious outcomes doesn't help, it turns out.

Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#77

Post by mrhands69 »

amalter wrote: post #66
mrhands69 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why haven't we spent time bolstering healthcare then? Why have all the field hospitals been destroyed as fast as they were put up?

We don't have enough doctors and nurses to staff the ICU beds bolted to the floors of the hospital. Those field hospitals are surge capacity; and work with hurricanes and earthquakes where a single part of the country is affected. You can bring in volunteers and reservists from other areas to create capacity. When the emergency is everywhere, and on-going, all of your surge capacity is gone.

The emergency has been everywhere and ongoing for almost 2 years now. At what point do they make an effort and the government says "Hey, let's permanently bolster our hospital systems. We'll hire X amount of 'surge' staff, create X amount of 'surge' beds".

But we don't do that. Instead we act surprised every time there's a surge, the media feeds off it and everyone starts infighting. I'm not convinced hospital capacity is really the problem people say it is.

Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#79

Post by mrhands69 »

logifail wrote: post #69
mrhands69 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why haven't we spent time bolstering healthcare then? Why have all the field hospitals been destroyed as fast as they were put up?

> Why have all the field hospitals been destroyed as fast as they were put up? Take your pick from: a) They were a bit of a PR gimmick? Better for gov't to be seen to do _something_ than standing around wringing your hands and hoping things will improve...? b) They couldn't be staffed and equipped to provide appropriate and useful additional care? c) General hospitals were perhaps not quite as close to being overwhel…

I think the argument is a fallacy in general. For people that keep making this argument: Stop beating around the bush and just come out and say you want zero covid at all costs.

Re: 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

#80

Post by standardUser »

FabHK wrote: post #20
makapuf wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember this includes vaccinated persons

Assuming the vaccination was successful in triggering the production of antibodies. It is unclear to me in what percentage of cases that is the case. Hong Kong requires 2 weeks quarantine even for vaccinated people entering, unless they have proof not only of vaccination, but of antibody count.

The immune response from vaccines is generally far less variable than the immune response from fighting off an infection naturally.
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