Julie WebgirlSo I'm curious. What are your current #Covid mitigations?
Boost (no pun intended) for better numbers 🙃
Nothing / outdated vaccine
Vaccine + latest boosters
Mask + vaccine + latest boosters
Mask ONLY
Poll ended at .
Arthur van der Harg@juliewebgirl My immunity has just been updated by an infection, kind of like a natural booster. I suppose I’m good for the next 1.5-2 years.
sabik@ArtHarg @juliewebgirl
Unfortunately, as I understand it, immunity from infection is at best partial and fleeting, what with swiftly-changing variants and the damage covid directly does to the immune system 😕
Unfortunately, as I understand it, immunity from infection is at best partial and fleeting, what with swiftly-changing variants and the damage covid directly does to the immune system 😕
@sabik @juliewebgirl That’s not how it works. COVID does not damage the immune system. What you see is the after effects of the IS having fought a viral infection. Like an empty supermarket shelf at the end of day: it will be refilled.
What lasts a couple of months is antibodies. But an infection also updates memory B cells. Those are the ones that churn out antibodies the next time you’re infected. So the infection is still fought much quicker than before immunity.
Sure: @marc_veld is an actual immunologist (I am not) who explains the immunology of COVID quite well. I've been following him since the early days of the pandemic. Scan his timeline, you'll find plenty of articles. (Note: some people find his style of writing somewhat abrasive. I've seen some of the cr** he's been dealing with on Twitter, so I understand where he's coming from.)
@ArtHarg
I asked for a link not a timeline to spend hours scrolling looking for one data point.
@sabik @marc_veld
I asked for a link not a timeline to spend hours scrolling looking for one data point.
@sabik @marc_veld
@juliewebgirl @sabik @marc_veld The workings of the immune system and its response to SARS-CoV-2 are not one single data point. But (showing my reasonable, helpful side): what information would you like to find at any link I provide?
@ArtHarg @juliewebgirl @marc_veld
SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection and Severity of the Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
> Reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 suggests that natural immunity is not long-lasting in COVID-19 patients.
SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection and Severity of the Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Since the discovery of SARS-CoV-2, changes in genotype and reinfection with different variants have been observed in COVID-19-recovered patients, raising questions around the clinical pattern and severity of primary infection and reinfection. In this systematic review, we summarize the results of 23 studies addressing SARS-CoV-2 reinfections. A total of 23,231 reinfected patients were included, with pooled estimated reinfection rates ranging from 0.1 to 6.8%. Reinfections were more prevalent during the Omicron variant period. The mean age of reinfected patients was 38.0 ± 6. years and females were predominant among reinfected patients (M/F = 0.8). The most common symptoms during the first and second infection were fever (41.1%), cough (35.7% and 44.6%), myalgia (34.5% and 33.3%), fatigue (23.8% and 25.6%), and headaches (24.4% and 21.4%). No significant differences of clinical pattern were observed between primary infection and reinfection. No significant differences in the severity of infection were observed between primary infection and reinfection. Being female, being a patient with comorbidities, lacking anti-nucleocapsid IgG after the first infection, being infected during the Delta and Omicron wave, and being unvaccinated were associated with a higher risk of reinfection. Conflicting age-related findings were found in two studies. Reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 suggests that natural immunity is not long-lasting in COVID-19 patients.
@sabik @juliewebgirl @marc_veld Yeah… well… the trouble with these systematic reviews and meta-analyses is that it is very easy to make methodological errors. Here, for instance, they rely on RT-PCR. There must be a reason to perform RT-PCR, so there is a significant selection effect in the groups that they study. And then we come to the following (esp. part 5/5): https://mastodon.online/@marc_veld/112649318254831164
Marc Veldhoen (@[email protected])
Protective effectiveness of previous infection against subsequent SARS-Cov-2 infection: systematic review and meta-analysis I see very wrong messaging about this paper. Infection-immunity works, of course, also against SARS-CoV-2. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1353415/full 1/5
@juliewebgirl @sabik @marc_veld Confirmed: twice, and I suspect that I've also had it in the very early stages of the pandemic, before testing was generally available. First confirmed time was in between the first and second booster shots and the second confirmed time was roughly a year and a half after the second booster.
And how about yourself?
@ArtHarg @juliewebgirl @marc_veld
As for immune system damage, it's one of the items in long covid
See e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9839201/
Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations
Long COVID is an often debilitating illness that occurs in at least 10% of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. More than 200 symptoms have been identified with impacts on multiple organ systems. At least 65 ...
@sabik @juliewebgirl @marc_veld True, the immune system is disrupted in a certain fraction of long covid cases. But AFAIK the jury is still out on whether this is actual damage or just an immune system that cannot completely clear a SC2 infection and is exhausted. And also whether the immune system of some individuals causes this, or SC2 can cause this in anyone. That makes a difference in the risk of long covid with repeated infections.