I posted Moderna’s results on the new booster shots earlier today.
Participants in Phase 2 study were tested for pseudovirus neutralization (PsVN) titers prior to boosting approximately 6 to 8 months after their primary vaccination series. Although titers versus the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 virus remained high, with 37 of 40 participants having detectable titers, titers against the variants of concern (B.1.351 and P.1) were much lower, with approximately half of participants having titers below the assay limit of quantification prior to boosting. Two weeks after receiving either mRNA-1273 or mRNA-1273.351, PsVN titers were boosted in all participants and all variants tested. Following boost, geometric mean titers (GMT) against the wild-type, B.1.351, and P.1 variants increased to levels similar to or higher than the previously reported peak titers against the ancestral (D614G) strain following primary vaccination1.
mRNA-1273.351 appeared more effective at increasing neutralization titers against the B.1.351 variant when compared to mRNA-1273, as evidenced by higher mean GMT levels already at 15 days following booster dose (GMT = 1400 for mRNA-1273.351; GMT = 864 for mRNA-1273). The relative decrease in neutralizing titers between the wild-type (D614G) and B.1.351 assays also improved with mRNA-1273.351 booster, from a 7.7-fold difference prior to boost to a 2.6-fold difference 15 days after boost, suggesting a potentially more balanced immune response against the tested variants.
Safety and tolerability profiles following third dose booster injections of 50 µg of mRNA-1273 or mRNA-1273.351 were generally comparable to those observed after the second dose of mRNA-1273 in the previously reported Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies. A review of solicited adverse events indicated that the vaccine boosters were generally well tolerated. The majority of adverse events were mild or moderate in severity. The frequency of any Grade 3 solicited local or systemic adverse events was 15% after the third dose of mRNA-1273 and 10.5% after the third dose of mRNA-1273.351.
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The mRNA shot provides temporary antibodies; they wane. And the antibodies are just to the Wild type variant. It has much less effectiveness against some of the other variants and that will continue with newer variants, too. As I have posted before this was never going to provide long term immunity. It isn’t a sterilizing immunity; it does not prevent infection.
“News reports that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine had an efficacy of over 90% sparked hopes that herd immunity—and ultimately the end of the current pandemic—was not only achievable but closer than many people had imagined1 This level of efficacy was not only surprising but placed the vaccine alongside those used to prevent once-dreaded diseases like measles, rubella, chickenpox, and polio.2”
“As game-changing as the Pfizer vaccine (and Moderna’s equally effective mRNA-1273 vaccine) may be in affording protection against the COVID-19 illness, the results do not reflect complete “sterilizing immunity.”
“This is the type of immunity that completely prevents a disease-causing pathogen like COVID-19 from establishing an infection. Sterilizing immunity differs from effective immunity in that the latter can prevent illness but still lead to asymptomatic infection.”
https://www.verywellhealth.com/covid-19-vaccines-and-sterilizing-immunity-5092148
All antibodies wane. That’s the nature of B cell lymphocytes: they literally work themselves to death. 90% die after an infection is beaten. The other 10% live on as Memory B cells. If the same pathogen is encountered again in the future, they’ll quickly replicate themselves and begin producing antibodies again. This is literally how it works for every single infection ever.
The antibodies produced from an infection are always specific to the antigens from that infection. You think people who got COVID-19 infections are somehow more immune or have different antibodies? They’re not. In fact, most of them are less immune. Look at the P.1 (Brazil) variant. It hit cities in Brazil where 70% of the people had the April 2020 variant already (recovered from infection). But P.1 hit the same people again. It didn’t care that they’d been infected before. Testing indicates that while the vaccines have less efficacy against P.1, they’re still very effective against it.
And yes, the immunity is neutralizing immunity. The data from Israel shows that the Pfizer vaccine blocks 94% of asymptomatic infections and 97% of symptomatic infections.