Keep getting those COVID jabs, peeps!
Pandemics are bad for economies. Vaccinations are an important bulwark against pandemics. But all viruses and all vaccines are not alike.
In the case of the annual flu vaccine, annual vaccination against flu variants can be a problem: antibody-producing memory cells crowd out new antibody-producing cells, and people develop relatively few neutralizing antibodies against the strains in the newer vaccine. Does getting updated COVID boosters interfere with vaccine effectiveness?
Recent data suggest that regular re-vaccination with updated COVID-19 vaccines against variants could provide protection not only from the SARS-CoV-2 variants represented in the vaccines, but also other SARS-CoV-2 variants and related coronaviruses, possibly including ones that have not yet emerged.
“The study, available online in Nature, shows that people who were repeatedly vaccinated for COVID-19 — initially receiving shots aimed at the original variant, followed by boosters and updated vaccines targeting variants — generated antibodies capable of neutralizing a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants and even some distantly related coronaviruses. The findings suggest that periodic re-vaccination for COVID-19, far from hindering the body’s ability to recognize and respond to new variants, may instead cause people to gradually build up a stock of broadly neutralizing antibodies that protect them from emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and some other coronavirus species as well, even ones that have not yet emerged to infect humans.”
repeated COVID vaccination enhances broad immunity
In the case of the annual flu vaccine, annual vaccination against flu variants can be a problem: antibody-producing memory cells crowd out new antibody-producing cells, and people develop relatively few neutralizing antibodies against the strains in the newer vaccine. Does getting updated COVID boosters interfere with vaccine effectiveness?
Recent data suggest that regular re-vaccination with updated COVID-19 vaccines against variants could provide protection not only from the SARS-CoV-2 variants represented in the vaccines, but also other SARS-CoV-2 variants and related coronaviruses, possibly including ones that have not yet emerged.
“The study, available online in Nature, shows that people who were repeatedly vaccinated for COVID-19 — initially receiving shots aimed at the original variant, followed by boosters and updated vaccines targeting variants — generated antibodies capable of neutralizing a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants and even some distantly related coronaviruses. The findings suggest that periodic re-vaccination for COVID-19, far from hindering the body’s ability to recognize and respond to new variants, may instead cause people to gradually build up a stock of broadly neutralizing antibodies that protect them from emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and some other coronavirus species as well, even ones that have not yet emerged to infect humans.”
repeated COVID vaccination enhances broad immunity
This conclusion seems consistent with the technical object of the DOD/DARPA; Pandemic Prevention Platform (PPP) which was studied in a 2013 contract to Moderna but was never push out of “exploration”.
The object was to “arm” soldiers with antibodies specific to biowar pathogens seen in the battle space.
“antibody-producing memory cells crowd out new antibody-producing cells” sounds at first glance reasonable, as the body is not infinite. But is there evidence for it? After all, we already have enormous numbers of different B cells, from living in an environment awash with infectious agents. I’d like to see a citation.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1879625716302127?via%3Dihub
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/imr.12900
joel
thanks for the information.
You’re the doctor, Joel, I’m just a Mad Scientist (angry, not evil) but to my observations messenger RNA is quite possibly the biggest medical breakthrough since hot-water. The list of potential maladies it can address is … long, and far beyond the Trump-Flu. There is some discussion that had mRNA been around forty years ago my wife wouldn’t need brain surgeries every couple a’three years, and that NFS2 is one of the first it is hoped to be studied under treatment. I can ignore trolls who run their responses through ChatBot …
@Ten,
Like you, I’m very impressed by the success of mRNA vaccines so far and their potential.
If you had asked me 30 years ago if I thought mRNA vaccines would work, I would have laughed out loud. One of the many reasons I’m not rich.