Researchers obviously couldn’t prove immunity by exposing folks to it. But they did scour the old literature and tested blood in previously vaccinated folks to provide as good a guess as ethics allowed. IIRC their conclusion was that distant vaccination wasn’t likely to prevent you from getting smallpox, but it might significantly reduce the risk of death from it. Which makes sense. Surviving smallpox is a race between the virus and your immune system. To the extent any useful memory B or T cells survive the latter can accelerate quicker, even though their initial quantities may not prevent an early viral lead.
Thank you for the information.
I put together some links in #72.
Your comment:
“The old vaccine was known not to provide Full lifelong immunity. When the disease was circulating folks got periodic repeat vaccinations.”
Seems to be debate in the literature I found and on this thread as to the length of immunity.
I would be very interested to see if anyone has information about getting a reliable test done to determine individual immunity.
Pretty sure I had the old vaccine—not sure if I had repeat vaccinations—I only have one jab scar on my bicep. Given the political climate today, not sure I would want a new one...