There has been previous discussion on this forum about the need for vaccination after having a prior COVID infection.

New data released yesterday from a study in Nature suggests that prior infection with COVID provides significantly reduced neutralizing antibodies to the delta variant, opening the potential for re-infection with COVID and development of severe disease even with prior COVID exposure. Antibodies also decrease with time after exposure (those who had COVID a year+ ago will have worse protective antibody titers)

Additionally, having only one dose of either mRNA vaccines -- Pfizer or Moderna -- also shows significantly reduced neutralizing antibodies compared to two doses.

Please get vaccinated today even if you have had COVID previously to protect yourself and your loved ones. Also, make sure to get both doses as the data clearly shows protection and value of obtaining both doses.

Quotes from the research study and links:

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We examined the neutralization ability of sera from convalescent subjects. We first selected samples from 56 donors in a cohort of infected individuals from the French city of Orlans. All individuals were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection by RT-qPCR or serology and included critical, severe, mild-to-moderate and asymptomatic cases (Extended Data Table 1). They were not vaccinated at the sampling time. We recently characterized the potency of these sera against D614G, Alpha and Beta isolates11. We analyzed individuals sampled at a median of 188 days post onset of symptoms (POS), referred to as Month 6 (M6) samples. We calculated ED50 (Effective Dose 50%) for each combination of serum and virus (Extended Data Fig. 7a). With the Alpha variant, we obtained similar ED50 values in this series of experiments than in our previous analysis11 (Extended Data Fig. 7b). We thus included our published data for D614G and Beta in the comparison. With Delta, neutralization titers were significantly decreased by 4 to 6-fold when compared to Alpha and D614G strains, respectively (Extended Data Fig. 7a). This reduction in neutralizing titers was similar against Delta and Beta (Extended Data Fig. 7a).

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Summary -- unvaccinated individuals with prior COVID infection show reduced antibody titers to the Delta variant compared to other variants.

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We asked whether this neutralization profile was maintained for longer periods of time. We analyzed sera from 47 individuals from another cohort of RT-qPCR-confirmed health care workers from Strasbourg University Hospitals who experienced mild disease. Twenty six individuals were unvaccinated, whereas 21 received a single dose of vaccine 7-81 days before sampling. The samples were collected at a later time point (M12), with a median of 330 and 359 days for unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals, respectively (Extended Data Table 1)23. As observed, the neutralization activity was globally low at M12 in unvaccinated individuals (Fig. 2a). There was a 4 fold decrease of ED50 against Beta and Delta, relative to Alpha (Fig. 2a). The 21 single-dose vaccine recipients of the M12 cohort included 9 vaccinated with AstraZeneca, 9 with Pfizer and 3 with Moderna vaccines. Sera from these vaccinated participants showed a dramatic increase in neutralizing antibody titers against Alpha, Beta and Delta variants, as compared to unvaccinated convalescents (Fig. 2a). Therefore, as shown with other variants a single dose of vaccine boosts cross-neutralizing antibody responses to Delta. We then classified the cases as neutralizers (defined as harboring neutralizing antibodies detectable at the first serum dilution of 1/30) and non-neutralizers, for the viral variants and the two cohorts (Extended Data Fig. 7c). Between 76% and 92% of the individuals neutralized the four strains at M6. The fraction of neutralizers was lower in the second cohort at M12, a phenomenon which was particularly marked for Beta and Delta. 88% of individuals neutralized Alpha and only 47% neutralized Delta. After vaccination, 100% of convalescent individuals neutralized the four strains (Extended Data Fig. 7c). Thus, variant Delta displays enhanced resistance to neutralization by sera from unvaccinated convalescent individuals, particularly one year after infection.

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Summary: Antibody titers were high and provided protection in individuals who had prior COVID infections and were then vaccinated compared to those who had COVID infections and were unvaccinated. Vaccination provides neutralizing antibodies against all variants tested, while unvaccinated even with prior COVID exposure provides reduced protection that decreases over time (1 year +). The data also shows that a single vaccine dose is protective for those individuals that had a COVID infection.

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In individuals that were not previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, a single dose of either Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines barely induced neutralizing antibodies against variant Delta. About 10% of the sera neutralized this variant. However, a two-dose regimen generated high sero-neutralization levels against variants Alpha, Beta and Delta, in subjects sampled at W8 to W16 post vaccination.

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Summary: In people that had no prior COVID infection, both vaccine doses are needed to provide high amounts of neutralizing antibodies. A single dose is not enough.

Link to the paper:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03777-9_reference.pdf

Is it still reduced levels of antibodies if I had the delta variant?

No

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opening the potential for re-infection with COVID

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Get back to me when people actually start getting reinfected on a large scale...

Exactly. Are there a lot of reinfections? Because this sounds similar to what we heard before about vanishing antibodies from prior infection. Turned out people still had lasting immunity and reinfections basically non existent

Big yawn

Vax proponents just need to accept that a good chunk of the vax-eligible crowd is simply NOT going to be vaccinated; period, end of story. THEIR choice and their consequences to accept.

Delta
Gamma
Epsilon
Iota
Lambda variants notwithstanding

GAC06 said:

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Exactly. Are there a lot of reinfections? Because this sounds similar to what we heard before about vanishing antibodies from prior infection. Turned out people still had lasting immunity and reinfections basically non existent

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Yep

Just more scare tactics used for control

or just catch the delta and recover from the delta....just like 99% who caught the alpha recovered from the alpha. I had to colleagues in OK catch the delta, after they both already had the alpha. both recovered just fine (40's and 50's).

I assume I had Alpha...no idea when beta came around...but the symptoms were less than the flu. I'm mid-40's. I've had flu twice in my life both with very high miserable fever. Covid was basically lethargy. I haven't had the flu shot in 10 years at least. had my flu' back in my 20's. haven't had the flu since...assuming some level of immunity helps.

Wife's had the covid twice. Both same deal. Lethargic. no big deal.

We have vaccines with no long-term study's. Having had the covid & recovering...and my experience therefrom, I still see no need to get the vaccine.

All my elderly parents have the vaccine. Elderly get the vaccine, risk/reward. I as well have had plenty of vaccines, just not the covid yet. Not opposed to getting the covid vaccine, but it will be 5 years or so before I consider it.

Here's what bothers me. I don't see a bunch of people pissing on other people about getting flu shots for a virus that is also deadly. why is everyone guilt tripping others about the covid. I don't get it.

I want all you people who got the Covid vaccine to HONESTLY tell us all if you got the flu vaccine EVERY YEAR as a consenting adult. I bet damn well most of you have not gotten it regularly....virus spreaders.

West Point Aggie said:

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Vax proponents just need to accept that a good chunk of the vax-eligible crowd is simply NOT going to be vaccinated; period, end of story. THEIR choice and their consequences to accept.

Delta
Gamma
Epsilon
Iota
Lambda variants notwithstanding

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I have accepted that. I'm just hoping we can get to herd immunity despite them. And I'll still blame them for prolonging this pandemic by allowing more variants to emerge and cause problems that are avoidable, all based on lies and misinformation about the vaccines.

I'm not worried about the delta variant because vaccines work against it. I am worried about a variant later emerging that is resistant to vaccines.

Damn those anti vaxxer Americans who allowed a variant to develop in India that in no way evades our vaccines or natural immunity! If only we had listened to larry culpepper and stayed masked up!

GAC06 said:

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Damn those anti vaxxer Americans who allowed a variant to develop in India that in no way evades our vaccines or natural immunity! If only we had listened to larry culpepper and stayed masked up!

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I know you think you're being funny, but I'm obviously not blaming American anti vaxxers for the delta variant. But when there is still a large chunk of the population who is unvaccinated it allows the variant to spread a lot more. The data is already showing this with the delta variant spiking in areas with low vaccination rates. And then more variants can later emerge.

The pandemic is over in a lot of people's minds understandably. But if this gets prolonged into next year, it's anti vaxxers' fault, unequivocally. The vaccines have been available since the spring, there's no excuse to not get vaccinated absent extenuating circumstances.

If it gets prolonged it's the fault of people still thinking they can eradicate a respiratory virus. It's over when we say it's over. Guess what: people will get covid. This fall, this winter, next spring. The real disease has been the insane response.

Find a new hobby.

GAC06 said:

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If it gets prolonged it's the fault of people still thinking they can eradicate a respiratory virus. It's over when we say it's over. Guess what: people will get covid. This fall, this winter, next spring. The real disease has been the insane response.

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Got immunity naturally by living as free as ever since the beginning of this pandemic.

Won't ever get the shot, just like I've never gotten (and will never get) the flu shot.

Not my job to get every vaccination possible on the planet to protect every person on the planet.

Until the Good Lord comes again, there's a 100% chance that 100% of the world population will die, either from covid or old age or freak accidents like choking on a gobstopper, getting hit by a stray bullet, or dodging a firework.

We no longer fear God or believe in the afterlife, and as such, we constantly fear dying. Human existence is now our god, and we give up enjoying life simply to breathe another day. And liberals now expect everyone to do the same and live a pathetic, sad reality.

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." - Matthew 16:25

GAC06 said:

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If it gets prolonged it's the fault of people still thinking they can eradicate a respiratory virus. It's over when we say it's over. Guess what: people will get covid. This fall, this winter, next spring. The real disease has been the insane response.

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We all know covid wont be fully eradicated.

Your response here dodges the issue. Yes people will get covid, but vaccines are how we minimize the risk and reach herd immunity. Criticism of our response to it in 2020 is fair game, but a separate issue entirely.

I'm not dodging the issue. The issue is the fear porn, paranoia, and doubling down on failed policies. We will not have another spike like last winter. Covid as a "crisis" is the issue. And the crisis is over. We just need to acknowledge that and move forward.

Get vaccinated if you wish. Or don't. But we can't keep up like 2020 is a "new normal". It's time to move on even though some people will still get covid.

Herd immunity has been reached, months ago and without the vaccine.

The vaccine is only increasing it. That's a good thing, IMO. I have never been against people getting the jab if they want it. I'm not excited about forcing it on kids, but I respect parental rights.

COVID is over, man. Find a new hobby.

GAC06 said:

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I'm not dodging the issue. The issue is the fear porn, paranoia, and doubling down on failed policies. We will not have another spike like last winter. Covid as a "crisis" is the issue. And the crisis is over. We just need to acknowledge that and move forward.

Get vaccinated if you wish. Or don't. But we can't keep up like 2020 is a "new normal". It's time to move on even though some people will still get covid.

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I dont think we should go back to 2020 restrictions by any stretch of the imagination. I dont even take my mask with me anymore unless traveling. I just dont want covid to become a problem again down the road.

waitwhat? said:

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Herd immunity has been reached, months ago and without the vaccine.

The vaccine is only increasing it. That's a good thing, IMO. I have never been against people getting the jab if they want it. I'm not excited about forcing it on kids, but I respect parental rights.

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Statistically speaking, no we have not yet reached herd immunity. Not until about 75% of the population is vaccinated. But yes, the pandemic is mostly over in the United States, at least in people's minds. The risk of catching it in public is low.

I'm not for forced vaccinations. That would never work out. But I do feel strongly about the anti-vax movement and will continue to criticize it. Because it's based on fear and misinformation and it's largely being pushed by a-holes in the media who are vaccinated themselves but want to scare people because it helps their ratings (both the left and right wing media are guilty of this and it's why I dont watch cable news).

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COVID is over, man. Find a new hobby.

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what in the world does this mean? Do you think I just sit behind a computer all day watching covid videos on youtube and crying thinking the world is about to end?

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what in the world does this mean? Do you think I just sit behind a computer all day watching covid videos on youtube and crying thinking the world is about to end?

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I think there are quite a few posters on this board that match that description.

Not saying you're one, just that the quantity of traumatized individuals on this board is alarming. I really hope they venture back out into society at some point but the "variants" threads that keep popping up make me think that's not going to happen.

Ranger222 said:

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Summary: Antibody titers were high

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larry culpepper said:

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waitwhat? said:

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Herd immunity has been reached, months ago and without the vaccine.

The vaccine is only increasing it. That's a good thing, IMO. I have never been against people getting the jab if they want it. I'm not excited about forcing it on kids, but I respect parental rights.

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Statistically speaking, no we have not yet reached herd immunity. Not until about 75% of the population is vaccinated. But yes, the pandemic is mostly over in the United States, at least in people's minds. The risk of catching it in public is low.

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You are ignoring immunity via prior illness.

Just because the WHO changed their definition of immunity last summer to only include vaccinated, doesn't mean the original definition was incorrect or wrong.

By focusing only on vaccines/vaccinated, and ignoring or dismissing natural immunity, you are being intellectually dishonest.

75% vaccinated for herd immunity?

Go look at harris county vaccinated numbers. It's no where near the mystical 60% number Abbott made up. And its been the same for 2-3 months. About the same time orders were lifted. Look at cases and deaths in that frame.

I guess none of the variants have made it there yet. Or natural immunity is science too. But 75% is rediculous.

Motracicletraficificker said:

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or just catch the delta and recover from the delta....just like 99% who caught the alpha recovered from the alpha. I had to colleagues in OK catch the delta, after they both already had the alpha. both recovered just fine (40's and 50's).

I assume I had Alpha...no idea when beta came around...but the symptoms were less than the flu. I'm mid-40's. I've had flu twice in my life both with very high miserable fever. Covid was basically lethargy. I haven't had the flu shot in 10 years at least. had my flu' back in my 20's. haven't had the flu since...assuming some level of immunity helps.

Wife's had the covid twice. Both same deal. Lethargic. no big deal.

We have vaccines with no long-term study's. Having had the covid & recovering...and my experience therefrom, I still see no need to get the vaccine.

All my elderly parents have the vaccine. Elderly get the vaccine, risk/reward. I as well have had plenty of vaccines, just not the covid yet. Not opposed to getting the covid vaccine, but it will be 5 years or so before I consider it.

Here's what bothers me. I don't see a bunch of people pissing on other people about getting flu shots for a virus that is also deadly. why is everyone guilt tripping others about the covid. I don't get it.

I want all you people who got the Covid vaccine to HONESTLY tell us all if you got the flu vaccine EVERY YEAR as a consenting adult. I bet damn well most of you have not gotten it regularly....virus spreaders.

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The flu vaccine is much less effective than the COVID vaccine and flu is an order of magnitude less deadly. That's comparing a mountain to a mole hill. I do think you should get the flu shot, but I care about 20x-30x about you getting the flu shot to account for the difference in health outcomes (effectiveness and deadliness). I mean why get an MMR vaccine or or the Tdap vaccine? Why did anybody even get the polio vaccine? Or rabies? It's almost like some vaccines matter more than others. I was required to get the menengitis vaccine before I went to A&M I mean isn't that just ridiculous.

I do get the flu shot every year since I became a "consenting" adult. It's really ****ing easy to do.

NASAg03 said:

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Got immunity naturally by living as free as ever since the beginning of this pandemic.

Won't ever get the shot, just like I've never gotten (and will never get) the flu shot.

Not my job to get every vaccination possible on the planet to protect every person on the planet.

Until the Good Lord comes again, there's a 100% chance that 100% of the world population will die, either from covid or old age or freak accidents like choking on a gobstopper, getting hit by a stray bullet, or dodging a firework.

We no longer fear God or believe in the afterlife, and as such, we constantly fear dying. Human existence is now our god, and we give up enjoying life simply to breathe another day. And liberals now expect everyone to do the same and live a pathetic, sad reality.

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." - Matthew 16:25

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Are you going to use religion to sit on your high horse and judge people who get the vaccine? As if fear of dying is something weird? I didnt get the vaccine because i'm afraid it will kill me, I got it to do my part to slow the spread and get closer to herd immunity.

If this is your life philosophy then I take it you don't wear a seatbelt while in the car. If you want to be consistent with your beliefs.

waitwhat? said:

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Herd immunity has been reached, months ago and without the vaccine.

The vaccine is only increasing it. That's a good thing, IMO. I have never been against people getting the jab if they want it. I'm not excited about forcing it on kids, but I respect parental rights.

COVID is over, man. Find a new hobby.

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You're on this board more than most people. Is it over? Do you need to find a new hobby?

We are not at herd immunity and the only way we've gotten close at certain conditions (late spring early summer) is through vaccination. Like I don't know how anybody could be so clueless to support that kind of a lie. Why is the south leading in cases right now? Why are 99.2% of all deaths from COVID unvaccinated people?

Look life is pretty close to normal for me and everyone I know. I go into work, bars, restaurants etc. and I don't wear a mask or anything because I am fully vaccinated (so spare me the stay locked in your house forever canned response). However, that doesn't mean we've made it and this is done here in America. We still need people to wake the **** up and be a responsible adult. Society isn't asking much from you.