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I know a lot about all this. My best friend is one of the top people involved with molnupiravir, Merck's new pill that is going to be a big deal once it gets approved in about 40 days. I've studied all this more closely than a normal person should. FWIW - had Covid in 9/2020, vaxed in March 2021 (J&J), will have Moderna booster next week. My thoughts:
- You shouldn't have to show you are vaccinated. You should have to show you have immunity. Immunity whether by vax or natural infection should be sufficient.
- Anyone who discusses any of this and uses only the term "antibodies" shouldn't be talking about it authoritatively. Our immune system is much more complex and consists of antibodies - that wane over time as they should and have to - and then memory B and T cells which is that part of our system that reacts to invading viruses once the antibodies are gone. Their role is to quickly create antibodies based on the previous infection. Antibodies are good, but so far the evidence is overwhelming that we will have long-term immunity from Covid due to our B and T cells. (See T-Cells & COVID-19: Penn Study Shows Robust T-Cell Response to Vaccine for one of hundreds of articles on this).
- The reason they are recommending boosters only for people who are at risk is because they are better protected by having anti-bodies that react immediately, and not rely on T and B cell that might take hours to create the antibodies. Anyone not at risk will be fine - their T and B cells will kick in and protect them from serious health issues.
You keep talking antibodies, which doesn't make sense. How long antibodies last isn't as important as whether we have T and B cells that will likely last decades.
As for variant strains, against focusing on antibodies is just wrong. There are numerous articles that show that T and B cells, when faced with a new Covid attack, will take the variant into consideration and create antibodies that will destroy it. Don't say, yeah, but one day the variant will evolve so much that it will get around that. No, it won't. If the virus modifies itself too much, it won't be effective as it is. Again, all sorts of research available on this.
Please, before you start talking about antibodies, please read up on T and B cell immunity. It will help your understanding a ton.
My go to resources:
- Monica Gandhi MD, MPH / https://twitter.com/MonicaGandhi9?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author - she is fantastic. She's a liberal infectious disease doctor, so she is no shill for Trump, or any other conservative group. And yet the liberals dislike here for calling it like it is. Both sides don't like her, which makes her just right.
- ZDogg - Zubin Damania, MD. This guy is one of the best communicators I've ever seen. He isn't alt-right, or alt-left ... he says he's alt-middle, and his videos show this to be true. Sign up for his free content. It's great.
Here is a great video.
