How the COVID-19 vaccines work to prevent severe COVID-19

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-09-02 04:00

Australia; NSW; VIC

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When we get a COVID-19 vaccination, the antibodies we produce work to prevent severe COVID-19 and are likely more effective than antibody therapies, according to Australian research. The team collected data from 25 studies looking at how COVID-19 progresses from an infection to a serious illness requiring hospitalisation, with the aim of better understanding the work COVID-19 vaccination is doing to lower the risk of the virus progressing to that stage. The researchers say across the studies they looked at, vaccine-induced antibodies in the blood were consistently linked with protection against severe COVID-19 in those who got the virus. They say the protection appeared stronger than the protection patients get from antibody therapies used to treat the virus.

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Journal/
conference: PLOS Medicine

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, The University of New South Wales, The University of Sydney, The University of Melbourne, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Monash University

Funder: This research has been supported by the Commonwealth through an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship [DOI: https://doi.org/10.82133/C42F-K220] (to KME). This work is funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grants 2034282 (to ES), 2016491 (to SJK), 1173528 (to DC), 1173027 (to MPD), 2033318 (to DSK) and Australian Medical Research Future Fund award 2016062 (to SJK, MPD and DSK). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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