SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections elicit potent neutralizing antibody responses (is this a good thing?)

News-Medical & Life Sciences ^ | January 20, 2022 | N/A

[DoodleBob]

A recent study looked at the strength, durability and breadth of neutralizing antibody responses generated by breakthrough infections in individuals vaccinated against SARS-CoV2.

The findings are published this week in Cell, one of the scientific journals of Cell Press. Alexandra Walls and David Veesler in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle led the project.

Characteristics of the Delta and Omicron coronavirus variants of concern include enhanced transmissibility and immune evasion even in non-immunologically naïve individuals, compared to the ancestral pandemic coronavirus.

These characteristics, and the waning of immunity from vaccines, have led to breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals. For the most part, otherwise healthy people who are vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 usually do not have severe symptoms if they do end up contracting the virus.

The researchers wanted to understand what effect catching the virus after being vaccinated has on neutralizing antibodies, and to see how durable and broad these responses are... the researchers learned that the degree of antibody response depended on whether a person has had one, two, three, or four exposures to the spike protein through infection, vaccination, or a mixture of the two.

...

Among their study subjects, those who had completed a three-vaccination protocol, and those who had been vaccinated after recovering from COVID-19, and those with a breakthrough infection after vaccination launched almost comparable neutralizing antibody responses, in terms of magnitude and breadth. Their serum binding and antibody neutralizing responses to the spike protein in the current pandemic coronavirus variants were much more potent and lasting than those generated by people who had received only two doses of COVID-19 vaccine or who had a previous infection not followed by vaccination.

[DoodleBob]

The study can be found here.

I totally understand the importance of a defense against infection. But do these findings (admittedly, which aren't robust since they're based on 15 people) point to an over-active immune system with increased boosters and/or infection?

[Skywise]

This is just BS propaganda to continue to enforce vaccine usage.

If anything it’s a good sign that the immune response is the SAME as those even not vaxxed. But there’s no way that the immune system makes a “better” response because of the vax. That flies in the face of all known science.

[ifinnegan]

Yes. You’re right.

Key is what is being called natural immunity, you got the actual disease and got over it, is best.

They are trying to say being vaccinated, the more times the better, makes the natural immunity better.

But I don’t think their method can distinguish that.

[reasonisfaith]

Exactly.

How obvious can they be?

Many are finding out that the “vaccine” harms your immune response, so their third grade mentality is to put out a fake narrative that it helps your immune response.

[Pez149]

It’s beginning to look more and more like these vaccines are just about money.
These companies should have been made to go back to the drawing board the minute there was a breakthrough case.
It appears to me like the vaccine was never meant to work.

[Republican Wildcat]

But there’s no way that the immune system makes a “better” response because of the vax. That flies in the face of all known science.

Don't respond to more than is being said. It most certainly does not "fly in the face of all known science." The more exposures someone builds successful immunities to, the more immunity they will have. Both scientific and just plain common sense.

[Republican Wildcat]

It appears to me like the vaccine was never meant to work.

Really? Well they sure failed at that given the countless lives saved and severe illnesses prevented by them since they did work and worked very well.

[grey_whiskers]

Troll.

[Skywise]

BS. If that were true then you’d get better immunity with each booster when all the evidence shows diminishing levels of immunity WITHOUT natural immunity.

Don’t spout off about something you have no clue about.

[Rockingham]

If the limited evidence of the study is reduced to the simplest hypothesis, it is that the more COVID vaccinations and infections that a healthy person has, the higher the level of antibodies that one develops against COVID. This makes sense, intuitively, but, even for young and healthy people, is not necessarily an endorsement of either vaccinations or of getting COVID and letting nature take its course because the study does not look at cases and risks of vaccine injury or of fatal and long haul cases of COVID and its lingering after effects.