Covid super-immunity: one of the pandemic’s great puzzles

I don't remember what my high school biology class covered, but I was interested in becoming a virologist in middle school. Memory B and T cells aren't esoteric knowledge. If you spent even an hour or two on the internet reading about how the immune system responds to viral infection, you'd almost certainly cover them.

It's curious to me that so much of the focus on COVID vaccines focuses on the antibodies produced immediately after infection and vaccination and so little on the longer-lasting immune responses (memory T and B cells).

> Those who had recovered from COVID-19 months before receiving their jabs harboured antibodies capable of defanging the mutant spike, which displays far more resistance to immune attack than any known naturally occurring variant. These peoples' antibodies even blocked other types of coronaviruses. “It’s very likely they will be effective against any future variant that SARS-CoV-2 throws against them,” says Hatziioannou.

> As the world watches out for new coronavirus variants, the basis of such ‘super-immunity’ has become one of the pandemic’s great mysteries. Researchers hope that, by mapping the differences between the immune protection that comes from infection compared with that from vaccination, they can chart a safer path to this higher level of protection.

> “It has implications on boosters and how our immune responses are primed for the next variant that emerges,” says Mehul Suthar, a virologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. “We’re flying by the seat of our pants trying to figure this stuff out.”

I'm guessing (hoping?) the researchers are not as confused as the quotes make them out to be.

It is perfectly logical that the immune system would likely mount a broader response to natural infection. When you are vaccinated, you're being exposed to a (key) fragment of the spike protein. When you are infected with the virus, you're being exposed to a lot more. The full spike protein. The S2 subunit. The nucleocapsid protein. This gives the immune system a lot more to learn from and target.

Tangentially, it's also worth considering that our current vaccines are all delivered intramuscularly. It's a shame there isn't more investment in vaccines that could be delivered mucosally.

See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC8358136/

> ...systemic vaccination alone does not induce the whole variety of compartmentalized local immune responses observed after mucosal vaccination with the same antigen. As a respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2 may require higher levels of mucosal immunity to truly slow or block transmission [2]. Indeed, the most direct pathway to sterilizing and population immunity may be especially boosted through mucosal vaccine delivery to promote anti-SARS-CoV-2 S-IgA and TRM cells at the nasopharyngeal site of virus entry and replication. Experimentally, a single intranasal dose of adenovirus-vectored vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 infection in the upper and lower respiratory tract in rhesus macaques [13]. Moreover, mucosal vaccines for establishing TRM cells could be particularly beneficial for pathogens that undergo rapid mutation, like SARS-CoV-2, and therefore evade antibody-mediated protection [14].

The immunity conferred by getting COVID is quite variable from person to person, with some getting strong immunity and some getting little immunity depending on the particulars of their particular infection [1].

[1] https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/if-youve-already-h...

I can even see the US government being paid off by Big Pharma to implement mandates solely to leech tax/insurance money off.

But every single developed country, many with government-funded healthcare where they have no interest in throwing away money on something that doesn't work, many a higher level of democracy and high government trust, not a single one of them questioning this and skipping it? That's where the conspiracy gets too big and hard to believe.

Its also worth noting Pfizer is making a killing. Google Pfizer profits 2021. They have something like 90% growth at the moment.

I would say Big Pharma 100% has an agenda to push. They want you to take their drugs so they make money (like any company). In this case its a vaccine. They don't care if you have had covid they want the money.

However in my opinion this is not some new behavior. This is exactly how they have always acted. Look at the opioid crisis.

That creating vaccines which require 6monthly-1yearly boosters that every must take creates a new, lucrative revenue stream for Big Phrama and a conflict of interest, even when the initial vaccines may be cheap (e.g. Immunity as a Service).