Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com 
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com 
Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com
Because maybe your immune response won’t last too long, that’s why. One thing we do know: Sars-CoV-2 is in the same family as cold viruses. And, as any schoolchild knows, they keep on coming back.
Today Ian Sample of the Guardian * reports the first study which seems to show that your antibody response to a Covid 19 attack lasts for about three months at best. We much prefer you to read the story, linked below, because of the superb graph from the team at Kings College London who carried out the study. Here we want to talk about the questions and implications that Ian’s report raises.
Firstly, if immunity to infection can fall away, so can immunity induced by a vaccine. So will we now need a regular booster programme? If so, how much will that cost, and how shall it be administered? Would you, gentle reader, care to pay more taxes for that? Or could states pool the costs via supra-national bodies like the WHO?
On the other hand, does the immune system “remember” the antigen, and return to antibody production later? What role do T- cells have in all this, as Ian very sensibly asks? And finally, like an old bore in a pub, we at LSS are going to return to an old theme. Why isn’t someone using Artificial Intelligence algorithms to predict the likely evolutions of the virus? Surely that’s a better use of resources than just another mobile banking app?
here’s the report-it’s not yet been peer reviewed
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.20148429v1
#coronavirus #sarscov2 # covid19 #vaccine #immunity #artificial intelligence
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