Mild COVID infection induces lasting immunity

[CRLLS]

Is it wise to consider that the vaccines we have now, and the immunity from surviving infections only prevent severe reactions from reinfections ( so you don't die from it ), but they do not prevent the short window that some virus escaped from the killer cells and are able to transmit from you to the others?

I raise this question because I think it is safer to block the transmission using known good measures like social distancing and mask wearing.

Vaccine efficacy are measured based on death from infected test subjects, not the successful rate of blocking transmission. Throwing masks out of the window now gives the virus and it's variants a breathing room and that means our risk for them (though slower than without vaccines) to mutate to develope a vaccine-resistant strain.

Not really true. Efficacy in the trials was measured based on being non-symptomatic over the 3 month period after vaccination, not simply deaths. I do agree on the effectiveness of masks.

Personally, I took the vaccine for 3 reasons, some amount of immunity, a reduced impact if I contracted Covid and the lower likelihood of infecting other loved ones around me. I now follow the CDC guidelines of mask wearing and don't wear one unless the locations require (or even just request one) or others around me are wearing theirs.

 

[RAE]

Here's another study showing infection is equivalent to vaccination for generating immunity.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...ID-19-Findings-of-Cleveland-Clinic-study.aspx

Seems kind of obvious to me. Fundamentally, vaccines simulate catching the disease so your immune system can react.

Thanks for posting the link to this latest study. I had not seen it yet. Here is one quote from the summary of the study that says it pretty clearly:


"Importantly, not a single incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was observed in previously infected participants with or without vaccination."

Also, it may well be that those who have had COVID actually have stronger, more durable immunity than those who did not have COVID, and got the vaccine. The reason for that is that, the vaccine uses the "spike protein" from the virus to teach the body to defend itself against that protein. The real, live virus is composed of MANY different proteins (the more complex viruses can contain up to 200 different proteins). So, when the live virus intrudes, the body has a chance to identify and remember all of those different proteins. My understanding is that the B-cells (mostly in the bone marrow) are the cells that hold that information in their memory, and then are able to quickly produce antibodies if any of the foreign proteins enter the body again.

 

[Aerides]

How do you know for sure you did not have COVID? COVID was starting to spread in the USA around that time, and even earlier in California and some other places. It's very possible that you did have COVID, if you had most of the symptoms. An antibody test taken 4 months later means very little, according to research that shows antibodies fade away once the body has suppressed the infection (the T-cells and B-cells remain, however).

I don't know that I didn't for sure, of course. Just as someone who had my symptoms but never got a positive test also doesn't know for sure. We both may have, or may not.

Hence my point: With lack of concrete evidence of a prior covid infection, IMO, one should proceed as if one does not have the protection such a prior bout would very probably provide.

Running around going "eh, pretty sure I had it so I'll pass on a vaccine" is not a good idea. Getting a vaccine if you already had Covid has no downside, especially in the US where demand is currently lower than supply.

 

[Another Reader]

Here's an article that will appeal to Gumby, because what Navy guy doesn't enjoy an opportunity to poke a Marine. The NMRC is going to a detailed study of a cohort of Marine recruits that tested positive last year at Parris Island. The first three paragraphs are descriptive...

A new Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) study of young Marines who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 hopes to show how exposure to the coronavirus might protect against future infections and identify chronic health issues tied to COVID-19.

A research team from NMRC will travel to South Carolina in mid-June to revisit Marines who last year enrolled in a study at Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot and are now assigned to units there or nearby Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station. The team last week met with scores of Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and is collecting samples and health and medical data from the nearly 2,900 Marines who participated in the “COVID-19 Health Action Response for Marines” (CHARM) study.

The longitudinal prospective study is looking at the risks of infection after development of antibodies, created either from exposure to the coronavirus or after vaccination, among young, healthy people. The initial study began in May 2020, after the Marine Corps asked the Silver Spring, Md.-based NMRC to help find ways to sustain recruit training amid the pandemic.

The CHARM study of nearly 3,100 recruits found that those who tested positive for the virus could still be reinfected later, and at a lower rate than someone who’d never been exposed to the virus.

Full article: https://federallabs.org/news/nmrc-study-will-provide-clues-to-long-term-covid-19-effects

 

[Bongleur]

Even mild infections have a higher death rate within 6 months... so I still want to avoid getting it.

The Nature study is at
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03553-9

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/949862

Study: COVID-19 Can Kill Months After Infection
Ralph Ellis, Brenda Goodman, MA
April*23,*2021

Long-haul COVID-19 patients face many health threats — including a higher chance of dying — up to 6 months after they catch the virus, according to a massive study published in the journal Nature.


A second study, released by the CDC on Friday, also found lingering symptoms months later among COVID-19 patients who originally had mild symptoms.
For the Nature*study, researchers examined more than 87,000 COVID-19 patients and nearly 5 million control patients in a federal database. They found COVID-19 patients had a 59% higher risk of death up to 6 months after infection, compared to noninfected people.

Those findings translate into about eight extra deaths per 1000 patients over 6 months, because many deaths caused by long-term COVID complications are not recorded as COVID-19 deaths, the researchers said.

Among patients who were hospitalized and died after more than 30 days, there were 29 excess deaths per 1000 patients over 6 months.

"As far as total pandemic death toll, these numbers suggest that the deaths we're counting due to the immediate viral infection are only the tip of the iceberg,"
snip