COVID-19 Survivors Have Long-Term Immunity, 3659

Good morning, I’m still reporting on good news on COVID.
According to this morning’s Epoch Times - which is fast replacing the New York Times as THE newspaper of record – a new 8-month study shows that those who contracted COVID-19 disease still maintained strong immunity long after.

According to the study’s lead author, Rafi Ahmed, director of the Emory Univ. Vaccine Center:

“The study serves as a framework to define and predict long-lived immunity to SARS-CoV-2 after natural infection. We also saw indications in this phase that natural immunity could continue to persist,”

This is good news for those who have been tested positive for the presence of COVID antibodies as it should reassure those who haven’t contracted COVID that they have nothing to fear from those who have.

But the question is how long does it persist and how strong is the immunity?

According to Dr. Ahmed:

“We saw that antibody responses, especially IgG antibodies, were not only durable in the vast majority of patients but decayed at a slower rate than previously estimated, which suggests that patients are generating longer-lived plasma cells that can neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.”

On top of that, the researchers discovered that the immune response was stronger in those who suffered with stronger cases of COVID, and interestingly, immune response also increased with age.

According to the Epoch Times:

“The researchers found that not only did the immune response increase with disease severity but also with each decade of age regardless of disease severity, suggesting that there are additional unknown factors influencing age-related differences in COVID-19 responses.”

The research team will continue to evaluate this cohort of patients over the next few years.

This finding may lead to key future developments in the fight against other coronaviruses as the investigators found that participants also displayed increased immunity against common human coronaviruses as well as SARS-CoV-1, a close relative of the virus which causes COVID-19.

It also suggests that patients who survived COVID-19 are likely to also possess protective immunity even against the new, more infective, but less deadly COVID-19 variants, according to Dr. Ahmed.

The researchers said the study more comprehensively identifies the natural adaptive immune components leading to recovery, and this could:
“… pave the way for us to design vaccines that address multiple coronaviruses.”

According to Dr. Ahmed:

“We can build on these results to define the progression to long-lived immunity against the new coronavirus, which can guide rational responses when future outbreaks occur.”

I’m still reporting from the soon-to-be-restored citadel of world freedom. Good day.