Amplification vaccinations are necessary as the number of antibodies in the blood decreases over time. Until the end of November, the rule for mRNA vaccines was that they needed a third dose booster almost every six months. But the outbreak of the new Omicron mutation has shown that it makes sense to get the booster dose even earlier, at three months.
With the advent of 2022, however, everyone was surprised by the appeal of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to all citizens over the age of 60 to make the fourth installment from now on. And in Germany some have already taken a fourth dose. These are people with chronic diseases, diabetics or with a weakened immune system who are more threatened by the coronavirus. In similar cases in Germany, doctors give the green light for the fourth dose.
How long will we be vaccinated?
Many wonder how much this whole situation will take. In the future, should we expect to be vaccinated against the coronavirus every six months, as is the case with the flu vaccine? Experts do not have a definitive answer. Many factors need to be considered. Vaccines will probably have to be adapted in the future to new mutations in the coronavirus – as with seasonal flu. There are already many new vaccines against coronavirus in development, which take into account mutations such as Delta or Omicron.
The course of the pandemic is also crucial. It is not yet clear whether it will have disappeared after the fourth or fifth wave or whether the coronavirus will eventually become endemic, ie it will appear regularly in some areas in the coming decades. The issue of herd immunity is directly related to this element. How close are we to this? And if this has already happened in some parts of Africa, could it happen in Europe as well?
Antibodies and T-lymphocytes
On the issue of immunity, however, we should not focus only on antibodies, according to a large study by researchers from Britain and Singapore, recently published in the journal Nature. The study focused on 58 hospital staff who, although exposed to SARS-CoV-2, did not become ill or test positive for PCR or antibody testing. The researchers found that these workers, who appeared negative even though they were exposed to the virus, had more T-cells than another group of low-risk workers.
T cells are essentially directed against the RTC replication-transcription system, which is responsible for replicating the virus. At the same time, 58 workers were found to have an increased amount of IFI27 protein, which is associated with early SARS-CoV-2 infection. The researchers concluded that the virus was soon eliminated from the body, with T-lymphocytes preventing infection early. However, it remains unclear where this particularly strong immunity of these workers came from: perhaps from a previous infection with another coronavirus.
However, researchers do not recommend complacency or exposure to the coronavirus. No one should feel safe or assume that they are immune to the coronavirus because they are exposed to it. It is equally likely that he does not even have immunity. Now whether we should renew our vaccine again in the coming months will only be seen when the time comes!
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