If Antibodies Fall Short of Covid-19 Immunity, Call the T-cells
The missing key to Covid-19 immunity is within our reach.
Antibodies Alone Might Not be Enough
Many news headlines have reported that Covid-19 antibodies wane rather quickly. This statement is based on a China study published in Nature Medicine involving 37 symptomless and 37 symptomatic Covid-19 patients. Almost all of them showed over 70% decline in protective antibodies after two to three months. And, in that period, 40% of symptomless and 13% of symptomatic patients lost their antibodies completely.
A pre-print research with a larger sample size of 1500 persons tested positive for Covid-19 also derived at similar results. More than 10% no longer have protective antibodies after 21 days of disease onset. “After SARS-CoV-2 infection, people are unlikely to produce long-lasting protective antibodies against this virus,” they closed.
This fading antibody immunity trend of Covid-19 is similar to that of previous coronaviruses. Antibodies against human coronavirus 229E, SARS-CoV-1, and MERS-CoV all lasted for about a year only.
“After SARS-CoV-2 infection, people are unlikely to produce long-lasting protective antibodies…
