Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
I think you consider it as people having antibodies which reduce the chance of infection and the severity of infection.
Getting the vaccine or having had a previous infection should help stop you from getting COVID, if it doesn't then it should stop you from getting a bad case of COVID, if not then it should stop hospitalisations, if not then at least stop you going into the ICU and if it fails there then hopefully it'll stop you dying. It's a certain % decrease in the chances of all these things depending on the individual.
When this started I remember Chris Witty (or one of them) saying that you would get 'waves' of infection but each wave should be better than the last as immunity builds up, that's what we've seen.
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There is no chance of antibodies preventing infection and that applies to
any Vaccine. Antibodies play no part in preventing infection of the person vaccinated.
I am sure jonbxx can explain it better than me but here goes.
The immune system is very complicated but has a very good memory, there is no such thing as an antibody
per se, antibodies are a combination of T cell, B cells (and others) which fight an infection.
So, if a vaccinated person never gets infected then the immune system plays no part.
However, if a vaccinated person gets infected then the combination of T cells etc are already active and know what to do to fight it. This leads to reduced severity, hospitalisation and death because the immune system doesn't have to remember what worked as the solution is still active. This reduces the reaction time before the bodies defenses go into action, they are already there. This is the reason for the booster shots, they keep the solution the immune system worked out active.
So, if you've digested that then let's take it a little further.
I get infected bya non-vaccinated person so the viral load passed on to me is high.
My immune system is prepared to fight back immediately (it doesn't need to refer back to memory) because I'm fully vaccinated and boosted.
Now even though I'm "protected" my immune system gets overloaded due to the viral load and I start feeling ill or "out of sorts" until my immune system brings in the reinforcements it needs. However I may not realise I have contracted covid due to the symptoms.
Then I go and meet up with Seph for whatever, my viral load should be less than the unvaccinated person who passed (perhaps asyptomatic) to me albeit unknowingly.
Now Seph has caught it form me but the viral load is less so his immune system can deal with it easily and wipes it out quickly in his system and no viral load to transmit because my viral load was much less and Seph's immune system wasn't overwhelmed.
This applies to every single vaccine ever produced. There is not one that prevents infection.