The short answer to the question of which immunity is better, from disease or from vaccines, is that we don’t know. Or we don’t know yet. With the vaccine, the immune system sees only one protein, the so-called SARS-Cov-2 protein S. And that is so because what has been used in all vaccines to wake up the immune system is the spike protein of the coronavirus. However, when we get infected, our immune system sees all the proteins because it confronts the virus itself that has entered the body with all its proteins. That is, the immunity that causes the disease is more complete because the immune system is capable of detecting any of the virus proteins. But what we don’t know for sure is whether it is more effective or how long it lasts.
We also know that after passing the disease some people have been reinfected, very few, but there have been. And we know that with the vaccine there are also reinfections. Although the data tells us that there has been practically no one in the ICUs who had all three doses. 99% of people without other health complications who have passed through the ICU were not vaccinated or did not have the complete schedule.
And we also know that what we know as hybrid immunity, which is the one that occurs when a vaccinated person passes the disease, is the most complete of all and the most effective because it combines the two visions of the virus. But we have no data to know how long this immunity lasts.
What we still don’t know is what we need to have what we know as sterile immunity, which is that immunity that prevents you from getting infected. We’ll know at some point, but not yet.
And it is very important to be clear that this apparent public debate about the convenience of being infected on purpose to acquire this hybrid immunity is nonsense. From a health point of view, it is indisputably better not to get infected. It cannot be forgotten that covid can be very serious in some cases, even fatal. But also in those cases that are not serious we cannot ignore what is known long covid or persistent covid, which can affect at least 10% of people who have suffered covid and can become highly disabling.
Although we already know many things about SARS-Cov-2 and very important things, so much so that they have allowed us to manufacture vaccines in twelve months, it is clear that we still have a long way to go and that we must continue to investigate both the virus and the disease it causes. Everything we learn about it is going to be beneficial, even if it doesn’t help us for this pandemic, it can help us face another possible future scare caused by some other coronavirus.
Mary Montoya She is head of the Viral Immunology group at the Margarita Salas Biological Research Center (CSIC) and is part of the board of directors of the Spanish Society of Immunology, researching SARS-CoV-2.
Question sent via email by Maria Isabel Goñi Pagola
Coordination and drafting:victory bull
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