COVID infection plus a double jab may give more durable immunity than jabs alone

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-11-02 10:19

International

US health care workers who had caught COVID-19 and then had two doses of mRNA vaccine had higher spike antibody levels 6 months after being vaccinated than those who had no prior infection who had only been vaccinated. The authors say it is not clear exactly why there is greater antibody durability in previously infected people but it could be due to the number of exposures, the interval between exposures, or the interplay between natural and vaccine-derived immunity. However they did find that a longer interval between infection and first vaccine dose led to a higher antibody response which supports the idea of extending vaccine dosing intervals giving a greater immune response. A second study showed people who had previously had COVID-19 were less likely to catch a breakthrough infection following double vaccination than people who had not previously had COVID-19.

Media release

From:

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research JAMA, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report

Research JAMA, Web page Paper 2 - Association of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection With Risk of Breakthrough Infection Following mRNA Vaccination in Qatar

Journal/
conference: JAMA

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Johns Hopkins University, USA

Funder: Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under awards T32AI007291 (Dr Zhong) and K24AI141580 (Dr Milstone) and the generosity of the collective community of donors to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Health System for COVID-19 research.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.