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A British study from Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori shows that the immunity acquired by people infected and cured of Covid-19 “falls very quickly”, especially in asymptomatic people, and can only last a few months.
From June 20 to September 28, the two organizations followed 350,000 randomly chosen people in England, who underwent regular home tests for Covid-19 antibodies. “During the period, the proportion of people who tested positive for antibodies against Covid-19 decreased by 26.5, from 6% to 4.4% of the population studied,” explained a statement, “suggesting a reduction in antibodies in weeks or months after infection. “
“Immunity goes down very quickly,” said Helen Ward, a professor of public health at Imperial College and one of the study’s authors. The results also suggest that “those who did not show symptoms of the disease are more likely to lose detectable antibodies more quickly than symptomatic individuals,” the study notes.
The proportion of antibodies in people who tested positive for the virus decreased by 22.3% in all three, while among people who did not show symptoms of Covid-19 the drop was 64%.
The study highlights that, although all ages are affected by this reduction, the elderly suffer it more: between June and September, the percentage of people over 75 years of age with antibodies fell by 39%, while the reduction was 14, 9% in the 18-24 age group.
Optimism about vaccines
“This study represents a crucial element of the research as it helps us understand how Covid-19 antibodies evolve over time,” said Health Secretary James Bethell. “It is not yet known whether the antibodies confer an effective level of immunity or, if this immunity exists, how long it lasts,” said Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori, who asked the British to follow the health recommendations.
Virologist Wendy Barclay from Imperial College London explained that “the new coronavirus appears to behave very similarly to seasonal coronaviruses that have existed in humans for decades, some for hundreds of thousands of years.”
A person can be “reinfected every one to two years” with these seasonal coronaviruses, due to a decrease in immunity, Times Radio explained. Given the possible risk of reinfection with the new coronavirus, the teacher says that she does not support the concept of “immunity passport”, which would allow people cured of the new coronavirus to lead a normal life. “This concept of an immunity passport is not a good idea at the moment, because the quality of the immune response can vary from person to person,” says Barclay.
At the same time, he asked “optimism about vaccines, because vaccines will work differently “and may provide longer-lasting immunity.
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