It seems that our bodies may actually be doing a better job than we are in terms of understanding and combating COVID-19. According to a new story published in the New York Times, our body cells seem to be showing encouraging signs of developing immunity after contracting the virus, even in individuals who only developed mild symptoms.
Previous stories about the virus suggested that we may be susceptible to future rounds of the coronavirus, and while we’re not out of the woods yet, what we’re seeing in patients who have fought off the virus is encouraging. In those patients, scientists are finding disease-fighting antibodies as well as immune cells known as B cells and T cells that are capable of recognizing the virus. Moreover, these cells and antibodies appear to persist for months after the infection has resolved, which is similar to how the body responds to other viruses. Researchers are hopeful this will lead to the body fending it off faster and more successfully if exposed to the virus again.
Coronavirus Immunity
The findings cannot yet be fully confirmed until a larger scale of individuals who encounter the virus a second time can successfully keep the virus at bay, but the way the body is acting is exactly how scientists hope the body would respond in terms of virus response and recognition. Recently, there have been conflicting reports about how the body may be able to recognize the virus a second time, but multiple studies are now yielding positive results.
Another key understanding will be how long antibodies remain in the body. There are different cells and antibodies with varying shelf lives, meaning a person may be immune for months, years or decades depending on a number of factors. It’s similar to why you need a flu shot every year, but other vaccines are once a decade or one and done. Hopefully our antibodies can fight off reinfection for a longer period, but it could also depend on the individual and their own cells, so we won’t have a definitive answer for a while.
Regardless, these findings are encouraging for both the development of herd immunity and the creation of a vaccine. These findings are in contrast to updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which stated that immunity may only last a few months. Many experts quickly refuted how the media was interpreting the information from the CDC, and they point to the plethora of growing information showing that our bodies response and memory to the virus is right where we want it to be.
This is great news, and hopefully we continue to learn more about future immunity to COVID-19.