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One reason is because they've found that simply boosting with the original mRNA gives a massive spike in protection even against Delta, apparently on par with v
by bart_spoon 5y ago
One reason is because they've found that simply boosting with the original mRNA gives a massive spike in protection even against Delta, apparently on par with variant specific versions of the vaccine.
Another is that recent studies are showing that natural infection provides much more comprehensive, long-lasting immunity against all variants than the vaccination does, while vaccination with the current vaccines offers much more immunity than individuals who have never been vaccinated or infected. So it would seem like the best course of action moving forward may be to vaccinate everyone possible initially to prime their immune systems and reduce the severity of the disease, and then allow Covid to run its course. Eventually vaccinated individuals will have break-through infections, gain the more durable natural immunity, and Covid will become a less serious, endemic virus more like the flu or cold.
In short, we don't yet have a need for a Delta variant vaccine. That may not be true eventually, especially for future variants.
- bxrxdx 5y agoI haven't seen any research that says that infection acquired immunity is stronger or longer lasting than from vaccine. The opposite in fact.
- exhilaration 5y agoThis was posted last night https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28307224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28307224
- ChoGGi 5y agoThe first thread is commenting on the preprint status of that paper.
- fab1an 5y agoNot an expert, but afaik there's been quite a few studies showing that natural immunity is superior to the vaccine-induced one - I'm also fairly sure that virologists have theorized to that end even before the data became available for the following reason: the vaccine is 100% focussed on detecting the spike protein, so changes to the spike can result in evasive variants. Natural immunity OTOH is developed against more sites of the virus and thus provide a more broad and robust response to variants, present and future.
- bart_spoon 5y agoThere's been some mixed signals coming out of the research, but that's in part due to how immunity is being measured. There are definitely some studies showing that particular antibody levels for vaccines can be higher or longer lasting than natural infection, but recent research is showing that those with natural infection have had a far smaller risk of reinfection than those vaccinated, even when controlling for comorbidities. There are still confounding factors, such as behavioral differences between the groups, but its a pretty stark difference. It also makes sense from a theoretical standpoint, as acquired immunity is based on more than the just spike protein, unlike the vaccines, which is a big part of the differences between variants like Delta. The thought is that natural immunity is therefore more resilient to changes between variants. Its all early enough that its still an open question, but there's definitely early evidence that natural immunity is more resilient than vaccination only.