Antibody levels found in recovered COVID-19 patients fell sharply in 2-3 months after infection for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, according to a Chinese study published in Nature Medicine. This raises questions about the length of any immunity against the novel coronavirus.
Published: 18 June 2020 – Clinical and immunological assessment of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections.
The median percentage decrease was more than 70% for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. This drop happened in about 90% of patients.
Those who did not have a bad case of COVID-19 lose antibodies faster. Forty percent of asymptomatic individuals became seronegative and 12.9% of the symptomatic group became negative for IgG in the early convalescent phase. In addition, asymptomatic individuals exhibited lower levels of 18 pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. These data suggest that asymptomatic individuals had a weaker immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The research, published in Nature Medicine on June 18, highlights the risks of using COVID-19 ‘immunity passports’ and supports the prolonged use of public health interventions such as social distancing and isolating high-risk groups”.
This seems to indicate that our better bet is t-cell-related therapies and vaccines and hygiene and social distancing.
– Avoid getting together with larger groups
– Stay 6-10 ten feet apart if at all possible
– clean your hands every hour
Abstract
The clinical features and immune responses of asymptomatic individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have not been well described. We studied 37 asymptomatic individuals in the Wanzhou District who were diagnosed with RT–PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections but without any relevant clinical symptoms in the preceding 14 days and during hospitalization. Asymptomatic individuals were admitted to the government-designated Wanzhou People’s Hospital for centralized isolation in accordance with policy. The median duration of viral shedding in the asymptomatic group was 19 d (interquartile range (IQR), 15–26 d). The asymptomatic group had a significantly longer duration of viral shedding than the symptomatic group (log-rank P = 0.028). The virus-specific IgG levels in the asymptomatic group (median S/CO, 3.4; IQR, 1.6–10.7) were significantly lower (P = 0.005) relative to the symptomatic group (median S/CO, 20.5; IQR, 5.8–38.2) in the acute phase. Of asymptomatic individuals, 93.3% (28/30) and 81.1% (30/37) had reduction in IgG and neutralizing antibody levels, respectively, during the early convalescent phase, as compared to 96.8% (30/31) and 62.2% (23/37) of symptomatic patients. Forty percent of asymptomatic individuals became seronegative and 12.9% of the symptomatic group became negative for IgG in the early convalescent phase. In addition, asymptomatic individuals exhibited lower levels of 18 pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. These data suggest that asymptomatic individuals had a weaker immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The reduction in IgG and neutralizing antibody levels in the early convalescent phase might have implications for immunity strategy and serological surveys.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
I meant in the context of Covid-19. I saw a very brief paragraph at the very end of one of the endless series of articles on CV yesterday – honestly, there is lots of other news in the world – but that’s about it. I’ve never heard Gov. Cuomo or fast-food lover President Trump say anything about it, or any of the health experts. Maybe they think a vaccine is more likely than changing the American diet, or they’re afraid to take on Big Food, or to encourage car-loving Americans to exercise (they’d have to support bike lanes and sidewalks, something Republicans hate and think is communist, seriously). The FDA Food pyramid was just released and experts panned it as an industry-driven joke. The main source of the “experts” behind it come from a Coke company funded group, promoting sugary foods and beverages. Sugar is in everything now, even fruits have been bred for over-sweetness. Diabetes and overweight are nearly the majority of Americans, and it’s getting worse. Modern medicine can’t fix a lifetime of terrible habits.
I was with you until you tried to claim that nobody talks about Americans being unhealthy.
Seeing as maybe 10% of all mass media is devoted to this exact subject.
The virus appears to exploit senescent cells: https://www.healtheuropa.eu/could-these-senolytic-drugs-halt-the-spread-of-covid-19/100604/
If everyone 40+ can remove these cells, then the virus should be much less likely to kill them. If they had everyone take a Z-pack (Azithromycin), three times, each a month apart, perhaps combined with some low protein fasting (4-10 days of 700 calories for men, 500 for women, with 9% or less of those calories as protein) and fisetin, I think that would help.
The near fasting with low protein causes IGF-1 levels to go down causing the body to shift gears and kill cells for protein. But it kills the bad cells first like the senescent cells. It also boosts the brain…probably because if we came up short of food in nature, we might need to be a bit smarter to find food.
This is all completely backwards. For a vaccine to be useful it would have to be safe AND effective AND developed in record time <1 year AND able to be manufactured in billions of batches AND available/acceptable to billions of people (just look at the anti-vaxer movement in this country to see how unlikely that is, and even polio hasn’t been eradicated in decades since a vaccine was developed that is all of the above) AND it would have to be easily modifiable for mutating strains of CV (even the flu vaccine is only 60-70% effective, and it has to be updated every year AND people don’t all take it).
Partial immunity will come among healthy people through mild exposure over time, training and retraining their immune system to protect them against normal viral loads (i.e. not in a hospital ward).
Second, and what no one is willing to talk about for fear of being politically incorrect, people, especially Americans, are ridiculously unhealthy. See this chart:
OK, this is just NY, but it shows that if you don’t have the listed underlying conditions the risk of dying from Covid-19 is almost non-existent, even for advanced ages. True, it’s hard to find 75+ year-olds who don’t have something, but diabetes, hypertension & overweight are NOT normal, that’s the point. Americans in particular have come to accept that a fistful of pills & other medical intervention is normal. It isn’t. If people would control their risk factors, CV would disappear. So would 90% of other human ills.
an overall IFR of 0.26% and 0.04% for those under 70, there isn’t much to worry about.
Protect the elderly and vulnerable. Let the rest of us get on with rebuilding the economys. These draconian lockdowns will kill magnitudes more people than the virus.
I already hat it but I’m still keeping distance as if I didn’t. I assume even if you get reinfected, previous exposure reduces severity, but you never know and enough of helping this bug spread.
Waiting for an effective over-the-counter antiviral or a vaccine to be released, to relax the distancing.
At this point anything from a Chinese study is pretty much automatically suspect unless verified by at least two other non-Chinese sources.
And – will 30% protect? Or are we going to be worried about the Galloping Never-Get-Overs for the next 30 years?