Antibodies Persist for More Than a Year After COVID-19 Infection, Study Finds

Ivan Pentchoukov
By Ivan Pentchoukov
October 3, 2021COVID-19
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Antibodies Persist for More Than a Year After COVID-19 Infection, Study Finds
A laboratory staff places a vial containing a sample collected for COVID-19 coronavirus testing as part of Project Ummeed, a public-private initiative dealing with large scale COVID-19 RT-PCR tests available for low-income households, at the Metropolis Healthcare Ltd. diagnostic centre in Mumbai, India, on Sept. 16, 2020. (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP via Getty Images)

The immune systems of the vast majority of people who have been infected with the CCP virus will continue to carry antibodies against the virus for at least 12 months, according to a peer-reviewed study accepted by the European Journal of Immunology on Sept. 24.

Scientists at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare studied the presence of antibodies in 1,292 subjects after eight months of infection. They found that 96 percent of the subjects still carried neutralizing antibodies and 66 percent still carried a type of antibody called nucleoprotein IgG.

The scientists then investigated antibody levels one year after infection by randomly selecting 367 subjects from the original cohort who had not yet been vaccinated. Eighty-nine percent of the subjects still carried neutralizing antibodies, and 36 percent still carried the IgG antibody.

Antibody levels were higher in subjects who experienced severe COVID-19 disease. Compared to those who had mild disease, these subjects had two to seven times as many antibodies for at least 13 months after infection.

“Studies of individuals who have recovered from [CCP virus] infection are crucial in determining for how long antibodies persist after infection and whether these antibodies protect against re-infection,” the scientists wrote (pdf).

Despite lasting protection against the wild-type CCP virus, the study found that the neutralization efficiency against the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants waned over time. The reduction in efficiency was “considerably declined” for the Beta variant and was “only slightly reduced” against the Alpha variant. For the Delta variant, which is the dominant strain in the United States, the study found that 80 percent of the subjects still had immune protection 12 months after infection.

A study published in Nature Medicine in May found that the levels of neutralizing antibodies in a person are highly predictive of immune protection against infection and severe disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Prior studies have shown that antibodies persist 6 to 12 months after infection.

Despite the robust and lasting protection after an infection, CCP virus vaccine mandates in the United States offer no exemptions based on acquired immunity. An Epoch Times review of vaccine mandates for U.S. colleges and universities did not find a single school offering exemptions to students who had acquired immunity. Recent mandates imposed on the state and federal level likewise ignore acquired immunity.

From The Epoch Times

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