Africa-Press – Cape verde. The international scientific community and the WHO still recommend vaccination with available and officially approved coronavirus vaccines as the best way to curb the spread of the virus, especially in light of the emergence of increasingly infectious and even more lethal strains.
More than one way to obtain robust COVID-19 immunity has been discovered, according to new laboratory research from the Oregon Health & Science University, published on Tuesday in the journal Science Immunology.
According to the study, two types of immunity: breakthrough infections after vaccination and natural infection followed by vaccination, produce essentially identical levels of immune protection.
Although the research was conducted before the discovery of the Omicron variant, experts believe that the hybrid immune responses will be comparable with the new highly transmissible strain.
According to EurekAlert, the new study builds on an OHSU research released in December that demonstrated exceptionally high levels of immune response in the aftermath of breakthrough infections, a phenomenon known as “super immunity.” That research was the first to detect cross-neutralization of blood serum from breakthrough patients using various live SARS-CoV-2 strains.
It does not matter whether someone gets a breakthrough illness or is vaccinated after a natural infection, according to the new study.
Immune responses evaluated in blood serum in both cases indicated antibodies that were similarly plentiful and strong – at least 10 times more potent than immunity induced only by vaccination.
For the research, scientists gathered a total of 104 people, all OHSU employees who were vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, and divided them into three groups: 42 people who were vaccinated without infection, 31 people who were vaccinated after an infection, and 31 people who developed breakthrough infections after vaccination.
The researchers took blood samples from each participant and exposed them to three forms of the live SARS-CoV-2 virus at a Biosafety Level 3 lab, controlling for age, sex, and time since vaccination and infection. They discovered that both groups with “hybrid immunity” produced higher levels of immunity than the group that was vaccinated but not infected.
Moreover, the researchers believe that with the highly contagious Omicron variety spreading around the world, each new breakthrough infection could bring the pandemic closer to an end.
Nevertheless, the study authors said they have not studied numerous rounds of natural infection, but considering that billions of people around the world are still unvaccinated, many people will likely fall into that category.
And many unvaccinated people who have already been infected will most likely be infected again due to Omicron and other variants that are likely to come.
A previous study of the unvaccinated has revealed a considerably more variable amount of immune response than vaccination, according to Messer. In that study, the findings underscored the necessity of vaccination in conjunction with maintaining public health measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The study’s other senior co-author Marcel Curlin, M.D. told EurekAlert that natural infection alone has a varying level of immunity. He also expressed confidence that the novel coronavirus will be a relatively mild endemic sickness, similar to a seasonal respiratory tract infection, rather than a global pandemic.
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