After all, how long does the vaccine offer immunity?

Although almost a year has passed, there are questions about this pandemic that have not yet been answered. Although science is at the highest level, it is difficult to conclude some things, since there is no “time” to understand how it evolves.

In relation to vaccines, one of the most frequent questions is what is the vaccination period. The immunologist Luís Graça gives the answer.

  The time of immunity to the vaccine should be around 1 year.
After all, how long does the vaccine offer immunity?  The most correct answer at this point is "We don't know yet"!  However, those who know and master this area better "risk" their opinion.  For the immunologist Luís Graça "it is expected" that vaccination against COVID-19 provide protection for at least one year. However, it takes a long time to understand how the immunity of vaccinated people has evolved so far.

Since people who have had COVID-19 mostly have a state of immunity that lasts at least seven to eight months, vaccination is expected to confer immunity for a period of at least one year.

Luís Graça coordinates the cellular immunology research laboratory of the João Lobo Antunes Institute of Molecular Medicine, in Lisbon, reinforcing that "there has not yet been enough time to know the duration of immunity" that vaccines give.
The vaccines against COVID-19 already approved and administered in various parts of the world, including Portugal, although based on different technologies and with different degrees of effectiveness, are like an instruction manual for an army of cells in the body to produce antibodies (substances) capable of neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus when it invades the body.

The duration of immunity against COVID-19 artificially generated by vaccines (and not naturally by infection) is not yet known because "the first clinical trials" began a few months ago, "recalled Luís Graça.
Carlos Penha-Gonçalves, clarified that to understand the duration of protection provided by vaccines against covid-19, follow-up studies of vaccinated people are needed "for prolonged periods", which allow monitoring the immune response, for example the concentration of antibodies, and the presence of symptoms and the virus.
The national vaccination plan for covid-19 provides for "clinical follow-up studies to measure and control the immune response", which "will be developed at the national level and integrated into larger European studies, in order to achieve a more effective and full" .
The infectious disease is caused by a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, which has spread rapidly around the world.
More than 2.2 million people have died worldwide due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with a total of more than 105 million infected.