Antibodies that fight the new coronavirus may last only a few months in those with the disease. But protection against the coronavirus could last longer, reports NBC News.
The researchers recently found in a new study that the antibodies have a half-life of 73 days, meaning that about half of them would die after 73 days.
“Our findings raise concerns that humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 may not last long in people with mild illnesses, which make up the majority of people with COVID-19,” according to Dr. Otto Yang and others in the University of California, Los Angeles, who wrote for the study, according to CNN.
The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
This new research “calls for caution regarding antibody-based ‘immunity passports’, herd immunity and perhaps the durability of the vaccine,” Yang wrote for the study.
The researchers looked at 30 patients with COVID-19, including four people who lived together and were believed to have the disease.
However, antibodies are not the only answers. B cells within the body can learn to fight the coronavirus once it does the first time.
“They would be quickly called to action when there is a new exposure to the virus. It’s like they’re dormant, just waiting, “Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told NBC News.
