Exposure to Harmless Coronaviruses Boosts COVID-19 Immunity

Sci-Tech Daily ^ | NOVEMBER 23, 2021 | UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH

[BenLurkin]

[R]esearchers led by the University of Zurich (UZH) has now discovered another component that contributes to SARS-CoV-2 immunity – previous antibody responses to other, harmless coronaviruses. “People who have had strong immune responses to other human coronaviruses also have some protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection,” says Alexandra Trkola, head of the Institute of Medical Virology at UZH.

In their study, the researchers used a specially developed assay to analyze antibody levels against four other human coronaviruses in 825 serum samples taken before SARS-CoV-2 emerged. They also examined 389 samples from donors infected with SARS-CoV-2. Combining these analyses with computer-based models enabled the team to precisely predict how well the antibodies would bind to and neutralize invading viruses.

The researchers were able to demonstrate that people who caught SARS-CoV-2 had lower levels of antibodies against coronaviruses that cause common colds compared to uninfected people. In addition, people with high levels of antibodies against harmless coronaviruses were less likely to have been hospitalized after catching SARS-CoV-2. “Our study shows that a strong antibody response to human coronaviruses increases the level of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. So someone who has gained immunity to harmless coronaviruses is therefore also better protected against severe SARS-CoV-2 infections,” says Trkola. This type of immune response is referred to as cross-reactivity, and it also occurs with T cell responses, the additional line of the immune system in the defense against infections.

As these levels drop over time, infection is no longer prevented, but the immunological memory quickly reactivates the body’s defenses, the production of antibodies as well as the T cell defense. “Of course, immune responses targeting SARS-CoV-2 that are mounted by the memory cells are far more effective than cross-reactive responses. But even though the protection isn’t absolute, cross-reactive immune responses shorten the infection and reduce its severity.

[Sirius Lee]

It’s almost as if letting the virus virus results in better herd immunity than the delta-dodging frankenshots.

[DrewsMum]

They knew this in spring 2020 because I heard them talk about it. So why didnt they use those harmless coronaviruses to make the vaccine? Seems logical.

[Steve_Seattle]

So are they admitting the shutdowns were a mistake because they suppressed herd immunity?

[rdcbn1]

At the start of the Covid epidemic there were two variants, the S and the L variant. One was very dangerous and the other was highly infectious but comparatively benign with mild cold symptoms. Almost as if the safer variant was an inoculation for the more dangerous version. Why we did not isolate the benign strain and use it as an inoculation against the more dangerous and deadly strain is perplexing. We potentially had the solution to the pandemic within our grasp from the very start FWIW, the lock downs actually prevented the spread of the more benign strain which could have conferred a good measure of immunity.

[Chode]

[Paladin2]

“Why we did not isolate the benign strain and use it as an inoculation against the more dangerous and deadly strain is perplexing.”

Think Fauxcy and the whole CDC being lame when it comes to scientific investigation and method.

[ifinnegan]

Thanks.

[ifinnegan]

“They knew this in spring 2020 because I heard them talk about it. So why didnt they use those harmless coronaviruses to make the vaccine? Seems logical.”

Good questions.

It wasn’t really known but suspected. Data accumulates over time.

That vaccines based on this weren’t developed over the past decade and a half is a failure of Fauci. It is his job to fund such research for potential emerging biological threats and SARS Coronaviruses had caused two epidemics already.

[FamiliarFace]

Fauci isn’t a scientist, and never has been. He doesn’t use the scientific method. If he did, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

[Antoninus]

You mean the common-sense immunology that most people practiced prior to March 2020 still works in the case of WuFlu? Who’da guessed it?

[rdcbn1]

Yup. One of the most compelling facts that suggests that Covid -19 was a potentially bio engineered weapon was the fact that a considerably more highly infectious but far less dangerous strain appeared at the same time, or shortly after. Don’t hear many people talking about this and the possibility of two separate strains of the virus naturally appearing on the scene simultaneously is very improbable and suggests that some player involved in the bio engineering tried to release a competing strain to confer immunity against the more dangerous strain on the population

[D_Idaho]

That there is what they used to call a “vaccination.”

[mewzilla]

Makes me wonder about cross-reactivity issues with testing...