I recently reviewed a recent study from Israel indicating that naturally acquired immunity from having COVID-19 was 10-13 times more protective against the Delta variant than having the vaccine.
Continuing with this exploration of the strength of natural immunity, Nature published results from a study that shows people who recover from mild COVID-19 have bone-marrow cells that can produce antibodies for decades.
“A plasma cell is our life history, in terms of the pathogens we’ve been exposed to,” says Ali Ellebedy, a B-cell immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who led the study, published in Nature on 24 May….Ellebedy’s team tracked antibody production in 77 people who had recovered from mostly mild cases of COVID-19. As expected, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies plummeted in the four months after infection. But this decline slowed, and up to 11 months after infection, the researchers could still detect antibodies that recognized the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.To identify the source of the antibodies, Ellebedy’s team collected memory B cells and bone marrow from a subset of participants. Seven months after developing symptoms, most of these participants still had memory B cells that recognized SARS-CoV-2. In 15 of the 18 bone-marrow samples, the scientists found ultra-low but detectable populations of BMPCs [Bone Aarrow Plasma Cells] whose formation had been triggered by the individuals’ coronavirus infections 7–8 months before. Levels of these cells were stable in all five people who gave another bone-marrow sample several months later.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci was finally asked to comment on the Israeli study and the possibility that natural immunity potentially conferred better protection against COVID-19 than the vaccine.
His answer was a master class in political speak.
The question to Fauci, asked by CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Anderson Cooper 360, was “So, as we talk about vaccine mandates, I get calls all the time, people say, I’ve already had COVID, I’m protected. And now the study says maybe even more protected than the vaccine alone. Should they also get the vaccine? How do you make the case to them?”…”You know, that’s a really good point, Sanjay. I don’t have a really firm answer for you on that,” Fauci replied.At that moment, it became clear that the Biden administration was not “following the science” in demanding that people with natural immunity must still get vaccines in order to be able to work and fly on planes and go to restaurants and stores, and do all of the same things as vaccinated people can do.”That’s something that we’re going to have to discuss regarding the durability of the response,” he continued. “The one thing that paper from Israel didn’t tell you is whether or not — as high as the protection is with natural infection — what’s the durability compared to the durability of a vaccine?
As I have noted before, based on previous experience with the global coronavirus pandemic of 1889 and paired with the fact that SARC-CoV was engineered to adhere readily to human respiratory systems, the rules of epidemiology currently followed by the Biden administration may not be applicable.
Some of the more serious scientists are questioning COVID-theology and reassessing whether “herd immunity” is a reasonable goal.
Herd immunity is a real thing, protecting much of the world against viral threats from the measles to polio. Scientists credit it for helping eradicate smallpox. Having herd immunity as a goal likely helped the world embrace measures like wearing masks and social distancing. But it also created a false narrative.“The focus on ‘herd immunity’ has, in my view, been quite damaging,” said William Hanage, an epidemiologist and expert in communicable disease dynamics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It presents people with an unrealistic vision of how the pandemic comes to a close and doesn’t account for the evolution of either the virus or the nature of disease in reinfections.”
One last point in today’s review to mull over: Countries like Israel and the United Kingdom accept proof of previous COVID infection instead of proof of vaccination.
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