SARS-CoV-2

Levels of protective antibodies in people wane "quite rapidly" after coronavirus infection, say researchers.

Antibodies are a key part of our immune defences and stop the virus from getting inside the body's cells.

The Imperial College London team found the number of people testing positive for antibodies has fallen by 26% between June and September.

They say immunity appears to be fading and there is a risk of catching the virus multiple times.

More than 350,000 people in England have taken an antibody test as part of the REACT-2 study so far.

In the first round of testing, at the end of June and the beginning of July, about 60 in 1,000 people had detectable antibodies.

But in the latest set of tests, in September, only 44 per 1,000 people were positive.

It suggests the number of people with antibodies fell by more than a quarter between summer and autumn.

"Immunity is waning quite rapidly, we're only three months after our first [round of tests] and we're already showing a 26% decline in antibodies," said Prof Helen Ward, one of the researchers.

The fall was greater in those over 65, compared with younger age groups, and in those without symptoms compared with those with full-blown Covid-19.

The number of healthcare workers with antibodies remained relatively high, which the researchers suggest may be due to regular exposure to the virus.

Antibodies stick to the surface of the coronavirus to stop it invading our body's cells, and attract the rest of the immune system.

Exactly what the antibody drop means for immunity is still uncertain. There are other parts of the immune system, such as T-cells, which may also play a role.

However, the researchers warn antibodies tend to be highly predictive of who is protected.

Prof Wendy Barclay said: "We can see the antibodies and we can see them declining and we know antibodies on their own are quite protective.

Many worldwide government leaders are not qualified to manage the handling of a pandemic like Covid-19, and many have made major mistakes for over a year now. We are not here to blame, and we understand that day-to-day government operations do not normally include management of an airborne infectious disease pandemic. So, we ask that, for the benefit of all people everywhere, governments follow these simple but effective guidelines in managing and then eradicating the Covid-19 pandemic. First of all, Join the 10 day simultaneous confinement recommended at 10days.us! Help make it happen and slow covid down immediately!

1) Most importantly, random testing should be done by region, as all other testing is skewed and biased. The only way to know the real rate of increase or decrease of positivity, or past infection, or of a specific mutation or variant in a population is through 100% random testing of the population group. Even a small sample size, if done properly, will give truer results than simply collecting data from those who get tested.

2) Covid only hospitals should be built (in the UK they call them Nightingale hospitals) and all covid patients should be moved there and treated there. This involves building living and sleeping areas on-site for the doctors and nurses who work at the covid hospitals. This will provide a great economy of money and resources, as well as protect existing regular hospitals (which will have a reduced operation and staff as some of their staff will have to move to the covid hospitals). Alternatively, some existing hospital facilities can be turned over 100% to treating covid patiens. Thus no mixing of covid patients and other hospitalized patients occurs and a major vector of transmission is eliminated.

Check the Official U.S. Government site at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) department of the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Most experts think a vaccine is likely to become widely available by mid-2021, about 12-18 months after the new virus, known officially as Sars-CoV-2, first emerged.

Four coronaviruses already circulate in human beings. They cause common cold symptoms and we don't have vaccines for any of them.

America's top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has said that "we could start talking about real normality again" in 2021. Although a coronavirus vaccine could be determined "safe and effective" by the end of the year, he doesn't expect it to be widely available in the US until "several months" into 2021.

"I think we will likely know whether a vaccine is safe and effective given the number of phase three trials that are starting literally next week - and there are some in other countries that are already ongoing - that we should know by the end of December of this year, the beginning of next year," he told the Washington Post.

"I think as we get into 2021, several months in, that you would have a vaccine that would be widely available to people in the United States."

Whether or not to wear a face covering is an important decision when Covid-19 is active in your area. Better safe than sorry is a good guide here. Many countries and states and cities are requiring them in some situations. 

To understand why face masks might work, it is important to look at how the virus that causes Covid-19 spreads in the first place.

Once it has infected someone, the Sars-CoV-2 virus responsible for the disease hijacks their cells to replicate itself. As it multiplies, these new virus particles then burst out of the cells and become suspended in the bodily fluids in our lungs, mouth and nose. When an infected person coughs, they can send showers of tiny droplets – known as aerosols – filled with the virus into the air.

A single cough can produce up to 3,000 droplets. There are fears the virus can also be spread simply through speaking. One recent study showed that we spray thousands of droplets invisible to the naked eye into the air just by uttering the words “stay healthy”.

SLOW the spread of the coronavirus, STOP the spread of the coronavirus, and try to SLAY (Eradicate) the virus completely, until such time that we have found an effective vaccine, or developed another way to gain a real immunity to the coronavirus.

Basically we don't know yet whether or not infection with Covid-19 provides us with a resistance or an immunity to re-infection. It appears from the limited testing done so far that only a short-lived relatively weak resistance is obtained from infection; a resistance that is rather like the resistance obtained from catching the flu. First, scientists discovered patients who had recovered from infection with Covid-19, but mysteriously didn’t have any antibodies against it. Next it emerged that this might be the case for a significant number of people. Then came the finding that many of those who do develop antibodies seem to lose them again after just a few months.

This means that once infected with the coronavirus, after you recover, you can probably become infected again, or re-infected. This makes it even more critical that we SLOW the spread of the coronavirus, STOP the spread of the coronavirus, and try to SLAY (Eradicate) the virus completely, until such time that we have found an effective vaccine, or developed another way to gain a real immunity to the coronavirus. SSS - Slow, Stop & Slay!

In more scientific terms:

Antibody (Ab) responses to SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in most infected individuals 10-15 days following the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. However, due to the recent emergence of this virus in the human population it is not yet known how long these Ab responses will be maintained or whether they will provide protection from re-infection.

Studies show that a transient (temporary) neutralizing antibody response (nAb) is a feature shared by both a SARS-CoV-2 infection that causes low disease severity and the circulating seasonal coronaviruses that are associated with common colds. Stronger resistance is usually obtained from having a more severe form of Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2), and lower levels of resistance are usually obtained from suffering milder forms of infection.