"Antibodies last three months"

[Sheffield Wednesday]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/12/immunity-to-covid-19-could-be-lost-in-months-uk-study-suggests

King's College slam dunk.

Antibodies peak after three weeks and then rapidly decline.

Cycles of fuck.

[Alberon]

Great. There is an outside chance I had this back in February around the time a lot of people fell ill at the university I work out and it probably doesn't matter either way now.

I suppose the next question is if it wasn't severe the first time will it affect you the same way again? And those that nearly died of it - will they have to go through that again if they recatch it?

[Sheffield Wednesday]

From what I've heard, it's probably less severe actually if you get it again.

It's also about more than antibodies as well, so it's not a disaster necessarily.

[imitationleather]

Huge if true.

[Lordofthefiles]

Well that's absolutely fantastic news!

I had it bad in April and have been left with damaged lungs ...and now work are getting heavy with me regarding my return.
Perfect timing.

I'd wager that if I get it again I'm a goner (nearly was the first time and that was with fully functioning breath bags).

<unlucky_alf.jpg>

[Cloud]

And what about these undetectable "memory cells"?  Not the full picture...

[BlodwynPig]

And what about these undetectable "memory cells"?  Not the full picture...

whataboutery.

good luck Lordoftheflies. Forward your work this study and tell them you will lawyer up if necessary

[greencalx]

Apparently T-cells are where it's at: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/t-cells-found-covid-19-patients-bode-well-long-term-immunity

You might already be immune.

[Sheffield Wednesday]

steveh has posted related T-cell info which gives more optimism.

[Zetetic]

Is the short version - cross-reactivity etc. T-cells probably won't stop you developing an observable (re)infection, but they'll probably blunt the severity of it?

[MojoJojo]

Immunity response is really complicated. This is shitty science journalism.

[Captain Z]

Never mind T cells, I'm working on X cells. Got them all organised in a spreadsheet.

[steveh]

This is at least the third survey to have discovered this drop-off in antibodies. An earlier one I read suggested antibody immunity would likely last for 1-2 years for those who had stronger symptoms (and were typically older), a few months for those with milder symptoms. The more recent research puts it at less.

There is another coronavirus researchers have been doing comparisons with which caused a pandemic when it first appeared but which everyone now gets as a kid when it does little harm and then reoccurs regularly through life as a common cold. The hope is that SARS-CoV-2 will end up the same and if you've had it once then B/T cell memory will protect you from the severe effects in the future and there may be some cross-reactive immunity. However there is no evidence for this yet and one paper says genetic factors are still likely more important for severity than having had it before.

Posted this in another thread about T cells and testing. View seems to be that even allowing for antibody decline the numbers of people who've had it aren't much more than those found from antibody surveys - recent numbers were around 6.5% in the UK as a whole, 17% in London.

[Dewt]

Sick of this. Everything's always so negative. ANTIbodies. How about PRObodies instead? Maybe we'd beat this virus if we had a sunnier attitude.

[Cloud]

 

Immunity response is really complicated. This is shitty science journalism.

I'm more and more thinking along these lines. Everyone thinks they're an expert.  I too had jumped to the conclusion that if antibodies are short lived then we're fucked and hadn't particularly heard of "T cells" because I'm not an immunologist. And yet we have others with barely an idea of immunology also making guesses and printing them in the papers for everyone to act and panic on.

On a "not an expert but..." line, the human body and immune system (and that of most animals) is indeed very complex and very... well, good. With the odd exception like the bubonic plague.  The media lately has made us out to be the most fragile species on the planet.

[BlodwynPig]

Apparently T-cells are where it's at: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/t-cells-found-covid-19-patients-bode-well-long-term-immunity

You might already be immune.

you should caveat that

[Dewt]

Yeah, DICK CAVEAT! (Cavett)

[steveh]

People who had original SARS have been found to have robust T cell cross-reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 seventeen years later, which gives hope that if you've had Covid-19 once you won't get it so badly again.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2550-z

[Huxleys Babkins]

People who had original SARS have been found to have robust T cell cross-reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 seventeen years later, which gives hope that if you've had Covid-19 once you won't get it so badly again.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2550-z

Christ, don't get COVID, do get COVID. Why can't they make their bloody minds up?

[George Oscar Bluth II]

What if: when you get it a second time it's really mild and can be confused with a cold. That's a bad scenario isn't it.

[Uncle TechTip]

I worry that people think they've had it the first time when it might be confused with a cold, or flu.

[steveh]

There are already a sizeable proportion of people who are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms while being spreaders though.

If a vaccine can be created that can result in people getting the necessary memory T cells then it's a good thing if having them will reduce it to only cold-like symptoms.