Boosted or breakthrough, number of COVID-19 exposures may be key to antibody response

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-01-21 11:00

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The number of times you've been exposed to COVID-19 may be more important than the type of exposure, be it infection or vaccination, say US scientists. Their small study found that people who had breakthrough infections after being double vaccinated had similar levels of neutralising antibodies against COVID-19 as those who had had three jabs, and those who were double vaccinated after having COVID-19. The authors say the data suggests that the more exposures people have to the virus, either through vaccination or from catching COVID-19, the better the quality of the antibody response.

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conference: Cell

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Washington, USA

Funder: This study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (DP1AI158186 and HHSN272201700059C to D.V.), a Pew Biomedical Scholars Award (D.V.), an Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (D.V.),Fast Grants (D.V.) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1156262 to D.V.). D.V. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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