Professor Čaplinskas: The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination are twofold

But how soon will immunity develop after vaccination? And how does the BioNTech and Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine, which doctors are using to start vaccinating, work in general?

Professor Saulius Čaplinskas, a specialist in infectious diseases, wrote on the social network Facebook that said vaccine contains genetic information (mRNA – ribonucleic acid information) about the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which allows the virus to enter human cells .

“The vaccine does not contain the virus itself, so it cannot cause COVID-19 disease. The mRNA in the vaccine is coated with tiny fat particles (liposomes), which prevent the mRNA from breaking down and help it enter to the cell.

When a person receives the vaccine, the cells in their body can “read” the genetic information encoded in the vaccine and begin to make the protein from the needle. The human immune system recognizes this protein as foreign to the body and activates T cells, stimulating the production of antibodies that are part of a specific immune defense against foreign substances.

Subsequently, if a vaccinated person becomes infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, their immune system is already able to ‘recognize’ the virus and is ready to fight it: antibodies and T cells can work together to kill the virus, avoid to enter human cells and to kill infected cells, thus helping to protect against the coronavirus infection that causes COVID-19, “wrote the professor on his Facebook account, presenting the vaccine scheme.

S. Čaplinskas agreed to inform the Delfi portal in more detail about the operation of the Comirnaty vaccine.

– Why do I need two doses of COVID-19 instead of one?

– The second dose of the vaccine further strengthens the immune response and makes it more durable. Study data are already available, but have not yet been validated, so even a single vaccine may be sufficient.

But currently, according to the description of the vaccine, the vaccine is administered in two doses with an interval of three weeks. After the second dose, the strongest immunity develops after a week.

– What happens to the immunity during those three weeks between these two doses? After all, it takes some time for antibodies to form.

– So is. It takes time for both antibodies and memory cells. But here’s the point, when a person becomes infected with a virus, a race ensues: the virus will damage our cells faster or the immune system will create protective mechanisms: antibodies, immune cells that neutralize the virus faster than they will protect. A person.

When a person is infected with the virus, it can take 1 to 2 weeks for the immune system to become fully functional and for the body’s immune cells to fight the invading virus. During that time, a person can get sick, develop a disease, there can be various complications, including very serious ones.

If a person is vaccinated, then the immune system is ready. The vaccine trains the immune system and prepares to fight the virus without waiting a week or two if it enters. The immune system is activated immediately.

The point here is that if a person has immunity: either because they have become ill or because they have acquired specific immunity through vaccines, the immune system immediately recognizes that there is a foreign virus and immediately activates the defense mechanisms. That way, a person just doesn’t get sick. Or, if you get sick in some cases, you get sick in a much milder way. That’s what vaccines are for.

– When will protection against coronavirus finally be established?

– Some studies show, but have not yet fully confirmed, that perhaps even 12 days after the first dose, immunity develops.

But according to the description of the vaccine and how the vaccine is proposed, complete immunity should develop one week after the second dose.

This does not mean that vaccinated people should not be cautious either, as it is not yet possible to answer the question of whether or not a vaccinated person can transmit the virus to another person if they become infected again.

But the fact that you won’t get sick, that you won’t get sick, has already been proven in research. The positive results exceeded all expectations.

– So, even doctors vaccinated in COVID-19 units will have to continue working with personal protective equipment?

– They must also be subject to the same personal protection measures. However, even if protective measures don’t work, the immune system will protect them from disease.

– Is it true that the more people are vaccinated, the earlier herd immunity develops?

– The benefits of vaccination are twofold. One thing that protects a particular person from disease or serious form of disease. The second, it is estimated that if it is 60, and better still, 70 percent. people will be vaccinated, this virus will not be able to spread en masse.

Those who will be vaccinated, as protection against infections, and those who will not be vaccinated.

Isolated cases of the disease may continue, but they will remain isolated and will not spread as massively as they do now. Here that is called herd immunity.