[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

OK, as Nomadking said, when you get infected, there will be a while where the amount of virus in your system is so low that you to all intents and purposes would not be infectious. If you have been vaccinated (or had a disease before) there will be a low number of antibodies floating around. The antibodies do two things - they can bind on the virus in this case anywhere that they recognise and act as a marker for immune cells to destroy the virus. This marking will make the immune system more active and you will produce more antibodies.

The second thing antibodies can do is block the virus. If the antibody binds to the 'Receptor Binding Domain' (RBD) of the virus, this will stop the virus getting in to cells and stop any infection. This is why mutations to the RBD are worrying as you could lose this neutralising' effect. You see names of mutations which have a letter, three numbers and another letter. This tells you what part of the protein has changed and what to. TECHY BIT - So the 'UK mutation' N501Y changes an asparagine amino acid at position 501 to a tyrosine.

Anything in positions roughly 319 to 541 is worrying as you could lose that blocking effect. The South African variant has changes at 417, 484 and 501 which could be fun!

Worst case is that a vaccinated individual antibodies won't recognise the variants at all but data so far shows that does seem to be the case. Even if you lost the neutralising effect completely, there will be antibodies against other bits of the spike as some bits are more variable than others. What seems to be seen is a lower response and this needs to be looked at with care. When your immune system is activated, you have a LOT of antibodies and T-cells up and running. It would be like being hit in the head with a 15lb or a 20lb sledgehammer - 25% less weight but still going to do you in

Thanks Jon.

So the simple answer to my question is:

The CV arriving at "the person" will not mutate as a result of meeting the antibodies nor will that person be infectious.

Have I got it?