Natural immunity vs. vaccines.
This is the Coronavirus Briefing, an informed guide to the pandemic. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
-
Moderna said the F.D.A. should authorize a half-dose of its vaccine as a booster.
-
A parliamentary report found that Britain’s stumbling pandemic response cost thousands of lives.
-
The governor of Texas barred Covid vaccine mandates, setting up a likely court fight.
-
Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker.
Natural immunity vs. vaccines
As vaccine mandates roll out, a national debate has been brewing about whether the rules should apply to those who have so-called natural immunity from a previous coronavirus infection.
Politicians, athletes, law professors and psychiatrists have all weighed in on the dispute, which revolves around the central question: Do people who have had Covid really need the vaccine?
My colleague Apoorva Mandivilli recently set out to answer the question, and found that — like nearly everything about the virus — it’s very complicated.
The bottom line: People who have recovered from a Covid infection have some protection against the virus. But the strength and durability of their immunity depends on their age, health status and the severity of the initial infection. A vaccine would amplify their immunity, granting long-lasting protection against all the variants.
“Unlike vaccines, which seem to produce a pretty strong immune response in almost everybody, natural infection is a bit more variable,” Apoorva told me. “How strong and how durable your immunity is seems to depend on how severe the infection was — the more severe, the more protective.”
There are some benefits, however, to natural immunity. Antibodies from prior infection are more diverse and are able to fend off a wider range of variants than those produced by vaccines. Natural infection also stimulates defenses in the nose and throat — exactly where they are needed to prevent a second infection — while the vaccines produce antibodies mainly in the blood. Fragments of the virus may also persist in the body for weeks after infection, which gives the immune system more time to learn to fight it, while the proteins carried by the vaccine quickly exit the body.
“But long term, it’s not bulletproof against infection, just like vaccines,” Apoorva said. Natural immunity seems to offer protection for at least a few months, or possibly a year, against re-infection that produces symptoms.
Another big unknown is how well natural immunity protects against the newer variants. Most studies tracking natural immunity were completed before the rise of the Delta variant, and more recent research is patchy.
“Many months ago, before Delta, there would have been an argument for people who have had Covid to say that they don’t want to get vaccinated,” Apoorva said. “But now we know that not everybody produces a really strong response to being infected. They seem to not do quite as well against variants as they did against the original virus.”
“We also know that they can get reinfected after a certain point, even if they don’t get very sick, and they can spread the virus to others if they get infected,” she added. “So for all those reasons, it still makes sense, and it’s still important for people to get vaccinated. Both for their own ongoing health, but also to protect others.”
Vaccine-resistant police
The coronavirus was the most common cause of work-related death for American law enforcement officers in 2020 and 2021. More than 460 officers have died from Covid-19 infections tied to their work — more than four times as many as those who died from gunfire during the same period.
And yet, as my colleague Mitch Smith reports, many police officers are refusing to be vaccinated.
Some cities have released figures showing that police department employees have been vaccinated at lower rates than most other government workers, and at lower rates than the general public. In Los Angeles, where vaccines are required for city workers, more than 2,600 police department employees said they intended to seek a religious exemption, though almost all major religious denominations support vaccines.
According to law enforcement officials, police officers may be reluctant to get vaccinated because of disinformation and distrust, much like many other Americans. The daily dangers of police work may also make an invisible virus seem less dangerous, and vaccination less high a priority.
For now, the officers have leverage. Many police departments have an abundance of job openings and a dearth of qualified applicants. Nevertheless, Massachusetts has ordered state troopers and many other state employees to get vaccinated. Though most state troopers are in compliance, according to their union, some have refused to get a shot, with a mid-October deadline approaching.
What else we’re following
-
The German company CureVac, which pioneered early work on mRNA technology, withdrew its Covid vaccine application.
-
A judge said New York must allow religious exemptions to its health care worker vaccine mandate.
-
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who was heard coughing repeatedly in a televised meeting, said he has a cold, not Covid-19.
-
The New Jersey governor’s race is putting vaccine mandates to a political test.
-
Thailand proposed easing quarantine rules in a bid to lure New Year’s tourists.
-
The New Yorker did a deep dive into the lab-leak theory.
-
Stat News explored how to optimize the mixing and matching of Covid vaccines.
-
The Brooklyn Nets barred Kyrie Irving from all games and practices over controversy about his vaccination status.
What you’re doing
I struggle with not letting family and friends’ decisions to not be vaccinated tarnish my view of them as people. As much as I try to separate their stance on this matter from the so many other things that make them people I like, love and want to spend time with, it’s not working. And I think I’ve come to accept that I’m OK with that.
— Rick Fezell, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif.
Let us know how you’re dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter.
Sign up here to get the briefing by email.
Email your thoughts to briefing@nytimes.com.
"What" - Google News
October 13, 2021 at 05:06AM
https://ift.tt/3DPNv1x
Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today - The New York Times
"What" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3aVokM1
https://ift.tt/2Wij67R
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today - The New York Times"
Post a Comment