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Comment by mipsi | Hacker News Reader

So what's the difference between a booster and a recent vax (<2 months)?

As large as it could be. Recent vaccination gives you basically no protection at all. The graph at the end summarizes it: https://imgur.com/a/XfQstP6

Low antibodies != low immune response

The way I read this paper is that they're talking specifically about neutralization, not just antibody response.

I recall hearing that as well but I can't quite remember what the rest of the picture is - something about the other parts of the immune system being able to do the needed work? Or that it was shown that someone with zero antibodies could still be immune?

Other parts of the immune system, specifically T-cell response. The simplified bottom line is that antibodies provide a quick response that also prevents many cases of mild disease. T-cell immunity lasts longer, appears more universal against variants and should still work relatively well against severe cases.

Basically, memory B-cells remember the code for anti-bodies and they are produced "on demand". Please see the graph in the figure below.

https://askabiologist.asu.edu/memory-b-cell

This is completely incorrect. As the sibling comment notes, antibody titer against a pseudovirus (synthetic virus containing spike protein; what this figure shows) is a proxy for immunity, and nobody has ever shown that it bears any practical significance at all. Antibody levels go down over time. If they didn't, your blood would be peanut butter.

Antibody levels for absolute neutralization of a synthetic virus in a dish? I have no idea what that means. It's something people look at because it's easy to look at in a dish.

In contrast, a recent paper from JHU and the NIH shows that people who were previously infected have T-Cell responses to spike protein that are almost completely unaffected by mutations in Omicron:

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.06.471446v1

In short, there's excellent data showing that long-term immunity to Omicron is robust after exposure to prior strains.

And yet, first American confirmed death from reinfection in a unvaccinated person was yesterday:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/21/us-omicron-...

Rare things happen, rarely. It's a big world. Also that "may" in the headline is a logical hole that you can drive a truck through -- being PCR positive prior to death is by no means dispositive evidence that the virus is what killed the person. Pretty much everyone setting foot in a hospital today is tested for Covid, whether they went there for cancer, a heart attack, or the infection itself.

WaPo and "if it bleeds, it leads" coverage like this will give you a completely distorted view of reality. Stop feeding the beast.

Let’s hope so. Checkout this comment in 2-3 weeks to see how well it fares.

This is not reddit. I have no doubt that in 2-3 weeks there will be numerous people who have died of Omicron. Given sufficient time, I'm sure there will be examples of people who die from the virus after reinfection.

As I said: it's a big world, and people die of incredibly innocuous things, every day.

This is not Reddit, as you said. You’re claiming it will be innocuous with nothing to support it.

The little data we do have shows it’s much more transmissible, with partial vaccine scape and probably just as deadly.

We have every reason to be worried.

The very first comment I posted -- the one to which you're replying now -- is a link to a paper showing that cellular immunity to Omicron is likely quite robust after exposure to a prior strain. There is now ample evidence that vaccines provide robust protection as well:

https://twitter.com/miamalan/status/1470712673629261837

You will be fine. Please stop panicking. And turn off the news.

hey timr, i really appreciate your level-headed critiques (in the positive sense) of covid research despite the continued negativity you're receiving. few folks have been able to ignore the fearmongering and dig more deeply into the turbulent and harried research to tease out where we're really at in terms of understanding and uncertainty. just wanted to go beyond the anonymous upvote to show some appreciation and support.

Thanks for the kind words. I've been trying really hard to stay balanced on this issue here.

Maybe not a huge surprise. The initial reports in South Africa, which referred to Omicron being mild, referred to double vaccinated people.

Ballpark, (surviving) infection confers immunity similar to one vaccine dose—with all the downsides of having been infected.

Don't trust this source but that might be fake: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/busted-cnn-reports-...

There is no difference between what is injected.

It's more like a retraining program. It's almost like the difference between short and long term memory. One shot will turn on short term memory after a week or two. Repeating shots will turn on long term memory.

But what I personally think is interesting is that a natural infection works longer and broader after just one 'dose'.

It is amazing how complitacted the immuunsysteem is. And I also think this is the reason we should be careful with giving healthy young people the vaccins.

It will likely be too difficult to do a study to answer this precisely. But if you recently got your initial vaccination completed, you shouldn't be in a rush to get a booster. The booster is there to reinforce the immunity after it has had to wear off.

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