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natural immunity vs vaccine
As the Delta variant increases in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that anyone who is eligible to get the vaccine, including those who have been infected with COVID-19 in the past.
While antibodies from a COVID-19 infection may offer some degree of protection against another future infection (called “natural immunity”), those who have previously had the virus may still be vulnerable, perhaps particularly to the Delta variant, the current predominant strain, which is almost twice as contagious as the previous variants. In fact, a study released by the CDC on August 6 compared the rates of re-infection of people who had previously had COVID-19 and found that unvaccinated individuals were more than twice as likely to be re-infected than individuals fully vaccinated.
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Why vaccination is still crucial in the fight against the Delta variant, according to experts.
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For this reason, experts do not recommend relying solely on natural immunity to prevent infection with COVID-19. Here’s what you need to know about how to protect yourself and others from the Delta variant and other strains.
Do experts recommend that I always get the vaccine if I have already had COVID-19?
All infections offer some degree of protection against future illness by producing antibodies. “When you are infected with a virus, you make an immune response against it, just like you do with a vaccine,” Seema S. Lakdawala, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Pittsburgh, tells Health. According to Lakdawala, the immune system creates antibodies and T cells against the specific virus, which react when they “see” that virus.
This immune response can help fight off a new infection, said Amesh A. Adalja, MD, a senior researcher at the Center for Health Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Health. The problem is that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to mutate, so the original protection may not be effective on new mutations. “When you are infected, you become immune to similar viruses,” explains Lakdawala. “But the whole point of viruses is to keep spreading, so they evolve and change.”
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For example, Taylor Heald-Sargent, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics specializing in infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, explains that if you had COVID-19 during the initial outbreak in the spring of 2020, it is more most likely not that your antibodies do not measure up to the Delta strain.
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And according to Dr. Heald-Sargent, while a person may have some degree of immunity against the Delta variant of a previous infection, the level of protection can vary widely from individual to individual. For example, she says, an immunocompromised person may develop a weaker immune response than other individuals. Those who had milder forms of COVID-19 may also have weaker antibodies, says Joshua LaBaer, PhD, MD, executive director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. Health.
But regardless of the severity, a previous diagnosis of COVID-19 is no guarantee of protection: a study conducted by the University of Oxford found that people with weaker immune responses following a previous infection could be at a higher risk of contracting any of the newer variants of COVID-19. “We certainly see a lot of examples of people who have had the infection in the past and have been re-infected despite it, both with the Delta variant and the previous strains,” says Dr. LeBaer.
What should I know about antibodies, vaccines and the Delta variant?
The CDC officially recommends vaccination for all eligible people, including those who have had COVID-19 in the past. Compared to natural immunity, Dr Adalja claims that immunity due to vaccination is stronger, more robust and more predictable, making it the best way to protect against serious illnesses caused by the Delta strain.
While an infection creates antibodies against all the proteins of a particular strain of the virus, vaccination focuses more on neutralizing the most important protein. “The spike protein, which binds to receptors to get inside a person’s cells, is the most important protein for a wide variety of strains,” explains Lakdawala. Antibodies to the peak proteins of the virus neutralize the whole virus, she explains, which prevents it from entering cells and making you sick.
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The vaccines also provide more antibodies to fight a new infection. Dr LeBaer says that while infected people may have antibodies in their blood, these antibodies increase dramatically upon vaccination.
And because of the increase in antibodies, when vaccine protection starts to wear off, people can be protected for longer. “The vaccine causes a lot more antibodies than a natural infection, so as the vaccine wanes, the protection lasts longer than it would from a natural infection,” says Dr. Heald-Sargent.
While she says vaccines won’t fully protect you against disease, Dr. Heald-Sargent adds that the three vaccines currently cleared by the FDA’s Emergency Use Clearance offer some protection against serious illness. , including against the Delta variant.
“When it comes to what matters, preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death, all three vaccines are extremely reliable,” says Dr. Adalja. “It is extremely unlikely that a fully vaccinated person will die from any emerging strain of COVID-19, including the Delta strain. “
And even if you are already vaccinated against COVID-19, experts encourage maintaining masking and physical distancing in public spaces, especially if you live in an area with high transmission. “Even if you are vaccinated, you can still have an infection,” says Dr. Heald-Sargent. “It might not make you sick, but you can still pass it on to someone else.”
The information in this story is accurate at the time of publication. However, as the situation surrounding COVID-19 continues to evolve, it is possible that some data has changed since publication. While Health tries to keep our stories as up-to-date as possible, we also encourage readers to stay informed with news and recommendations for their own communities by using the CDC, WHO, and their local public health department as resources.
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