The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve new COVID-19 booster shots this week — before the vaccines are tested on humans, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal.
The new boosters are similar to the COVID vaccines currently available in the US with minor modifications that protect recipients from the latest version of the Omicron variant.
Instead of waiting on data from testing in humans, the agency will use data from trials in mice — as well as the real world evidence of the safety of currently available COVID vaccines and test results from earlier iterations of boosters targeting older strains to evaluate the newest boosters, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said.
“Real world evidence from the current mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which have been administered to millions of individuals, show us that the vaccines are safe,” Califf said on Twitter. “As we know from prior experience, strain changes can be made without affecting safety.”
He added that modifying existing vaccines to include protection against different viral strains doesn’t require a change in ingredient and is a common practice the FDA does with flu vaccines.
The newest vaccines aim to protect against the latest subvariants of COVID-19.REUTERS
“FDA has extensive experience with reviewing strain changes in vaccines, as is done with the annual flu vaccine,” Califf said.
Both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have submitted new COVID vaccine boosters to the agency for approval and the FDA hopes to roll out a booster campaign this fall.
However, some health experts are wary of the decision to release the shots without completed human trials.
In June, two experts penned an op-ed demanding that the FDA not rush through the roll-out of the newest shots.
“I’m uncomfortable that we would move forward — that we would give millions or tens of millions of doses to people — based on mouse data,” one of the authors, Paul Offit, told the Journal.
Offit, an FDA adviser and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, believes the comparison between flu shots and COVID-19 shots is not well grounded due to the differences in mutations and protection levels.
The FDA will not convene another meeting to gather input from advisors on the vaccine approvals like has done in earlier roll-outs either.
Califf said advisors already “overwhelming” voted to include an omicron component in COVID-19 boosters at a meeting held in June.
“The agency feels confident in the extensive discussion that was held in June,” he said.
COVID-19 vaccines now on the market are not as effective against newer strains of the virus, including the newest Omicron subvariant BA.5.
Pfizer and Moderna both said current data proves the newest shots are safe and effective, according to the Journal.
The newer versions are only ever-so-slightly changed to protect against new variants, according to several experts. Also, testing on the two companies’ earlier versions targeting earlier strains has proved successful and safe. One such shot has already been approved in the U.K.
Moderna has already begun human trials on the newest subvariant-targeting vaccine and Pfizer is expected to begin theirs this month, but results will not be available before the vaccines are brought to the greater public.
“If we waited for clinical-trial results, thank you very much, we’d get them in the spring. It takes time to do clinical trials,” William Schaffner, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told the Journal. “This is just an updating of the previous vaccine that we used.”
The Packers quarterback, whose refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine became a national story last year, was on “The Joe Rogan Experience” Saturday when the topic came up. Rodgers, who told reporters he was “immunized” last year, admitted that the phrasing was intentionally misleading.
“I’d been ready the entire time for this question and had thought about how I wanted to answer it,” Rodgers said. “And I had come to the conclusion, I’m gonna say, ‘I’ve been immunized.’ And if there’s a follow-up, then talk about my process.
“But, thought there’s a possibility that I say, ‘I’m immunized,’ maybe they understand what that means, maybe they don’t. Maybe they follow up. They didn’t follow up. So then I go [into] the season them thinking, some of them, that I was vaccinated.”
Rodgers was referring to homeopathic medicine he took as a means of immunization, but he further contributed to the perception that he was vaccinated by speaking maskless at press conferences when only vaccinated players were allowed to do so.
When Rodgers eventually tested positive for COVID, the story blew up.
Aaron Rodgers (r.) speaking with Joe Rogan (l.) on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.YouTube/The Joe Rogan ExperienceAaron Rodgers participates in pregame warmups before a preseason game against the Chiefs.Getty Images
“I knew at some point if I contracted COVID or if word got out, because it’s the NFL and there’s leaks everywhere, it was possible I’d have to answer the questions,” Rodgers said. “And that’s when the s–tstorm hit because now I’m a liar, I’m endangering the community, my teammates, all these people. And the attempted takedown of me and my word and my integrity began.”
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize new Covid-19 booster shots this week without a staple of its normal decision-making process: data from a study showing whether the shots were safe and worked in humans.
Instead, the agency plans to assess the shots using data from other sources such as research in mice, the profiles of the original vaccines and the performance of earlier iterations of boosters targeting older forms of Omicron.
“Real world evidence from the current mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, which have been administered to millions of individuals, show us that the vaccines are safe,” FDA Commissioner
Robert Califf
said in a recent tweet. The FDA pointed to Dr. Califf’s tweets when asked for comment.
Clearance of the doses, without data from human testing known as clinical trials, is similar to the approach the FDA takes with flu shots, which are updated annually to keep up with mutating flu viruses.
Some vaccine experts have urged the agency to wait before clearing the new Covid-19 booster doses.
Photo:
EMILY ELCONIN/REUTERS
The approach has raised concerns, however, among some vaccine experts who have urged the agency to wait.
“I’m uncomfortable that we would move forward—that we would give millions or tens of millions of doses to people—based on mouse data,” said
Paul Offit,
an FDA adviser and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The comparison with flu vaccines isn’t sound, Dr. Offit said, because flu viruses mutate so rapidly that shots from one year don’t offer protection for the next, while currently available Covid-19 shots continue to keep people out of the hospital.
In addition to evaluating the boosters without clinical-trial data, the FDA won’t convene another element from its earlier Covid-19 vaccine reviews: a meeting of advisers who make recommendations whether the agency should authorize a shot.
Retooled Covid-19 boosters are similar to the original shots, including Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines, seen last year, but have been customized to fight the latest variants.
Photo:
andrew caballero-reynolds/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The FDA scrapped the meeting, Dr. Califf said in his tweets on the subject, because the committee discussed the matter in June, and the agency doesn’t have new questions warranting its input.
The Covid-19 vaccines available in the U.S., which were first authorized for use in December 2020, haven’t been modified until now, though the virus they were designed to target has evolved.
The shots held up well against earlier strains, researchers found, but weren’t as effective against the newest Omicron subvariants like BA.5.
In planning for a fall booster campaign, federal health authorities in late June directed
Pfizer Inc.
and its partner
BioNTech SE,
and
Moderna Inc.
to update their shots to target BA.5, an Omicron subvariant called BA.4 and the original strain of the virus.
“We’ve validated the process several times over and continue to produce safe and effective vaccines against Covid-19,” a Pfizer spokeswoman said. Moderna said all current data indicates its shots are safe and effective.
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Human trials for Moderna’s vaccine targeting the subvariants have started, and for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected to start this month, the companies have said. Results won’t be available, however, before the U.S. government’s planned fall booster campaign.
“If we waited for clinical-trial results, thank you very much, we’d get them in the spring. It takes time to do clinical trials,” said
William Schaffner,
professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a nonvoting liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee that will decide whether to recommend the shots, should the FDA sign off. “This is just an updating of the previous vaccine that we used.”
The retooled shots are similar to the original shots, but customized to fight the latest variants, much like keys that are nearly identical but have slightly different ridges and valleys, said
John Grabenstein,
director of scientific communications for Immunize.org, a nonprofit that seeks to boost immunization rates.
With each mutation, the Covid-19 virus is becoming more transmissible. WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez breaks down the science of how Covid variants are getting better at infecting and spreading. Illustration: Rami Abukalam
The similarities make it very reasonable for regulators to weigh the overwhelmingly safe track record of the original series when considering the new shots, he said.
The FDA has reviewed test results from a shot that Moderna modified to target an early version of Omicron as well as the ancestral strain of the coronavirus. The study found the shot generated a significant amount of antibodies in humans compared with the company’s currently available booster shot. That shot is now approved in the U.K.
The agency also looked at human data from Pfizer and BioNTech finding that their experimental shots, updated to target an earlier form of Omicron, also boosted antibody levels significantly. The companies have submitted one of those shots to the U.K., EU and Canada for authorization, Pfizer has said.
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Such findings give the FDA confidence that the newest modified shots will also work well, said a person familiar with the agency’s deliberations.
“As we know from prior experience, strain changes can be made without affecting safety,” Dr. Califf said in a tweet.
Dr. Offit, however, said he would like to wait for clinical-trial data showing the shots are effective before asking people to take them.
“If you have some evidence that this is likely to be of value, sure,” he said. “But if you don’t have evidence, and you know that the current vaccine does offer protection against severe disease, I don’t think it’s fair to ask people to take risks.”
Carnival Cruise Line is easing its testing requirements for vaccinated passengers and allowing unvaccinated guests to travel without an exemption.
The cruise company will no longer demand testing for vaccinated passengers staying onboard for under 16 nights. Additionally, unvaccinated guests will no longer be required to file exemption requests.
“Carnival is pleased to announce new guidelines effective for cruises departing on Sept. 6, 2022, or later, which will make it easier for more guests to sail with simplified vaccination and testing guidelines, including no testing for vaccinated guests on sailings less than 16 nights and eliminating the exemption request process for unvaccinated guests, who will only need to show a negative test result at embarkation,” the company announced Saturday.
Vaccinated guests “must continue to provide evidence of their vaccination status prior to embarkation,” according to the new guidelines.
But unvaccinated passengers “are welcome to sail and are no longer required to apply for a vaccine exemption, except for cruises in Australia or on voyages 16 nights and longer.”
Unvaccinated passengers will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test from within three days of departure.
Cruises lasting more than 16 nights will continue to be subject to their own restrictions.
The cruise industry is sailing choppy waters yet again as it contends with a storm of labor problems, red-hot inflation and a threat of recession after barely steadying itself from the blows of an 18-month shutdown due to the pandemic.
The industry employs about 250,000 workers from over 100 countries, and their jobs range from a ship’s captain to a cocktail mixer, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.
Cruise operators, however, are still confident about the industry’s recovery in the longer term, although the strength of the summer sailing season, which typically accounts for a big chunk of operating income, is still under a cloud.
Long COVID could be even worse on the body than previously thought.
Well-known symptoms of long COVID include fatigue, fogginess and for some, the long-term loss of smell and taste.
However, a new study has found that there is a broader range of symptoms, including hair loss, loss of libido, incontinence and erectile dysfunction in men — and some people are more susceptible than others.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham analyzed anonymised electronic health records of 2.4 million people in the UK.Getty Images
Researchers from the University of Birmingham analyzed the health records of around 2.4 million people in the UK, finding that those who had been infected with COVID-19 reported 63 symptoms more frequently 12 weeks after they were infected compared to those who hadn’t been infected.
Researchers of the study — published in Nature Medicine — broke the most common symptoms into three categories: respiratory symptoms, mental health and cognitive problems. Other common symptoms include loss of smell, shortness of breath, chest pain and fever, nausea and vomiting, fever, bowel incontinence, erectile dysfunction, anhedonia (lack of enjoyment) and limb swelling.
Erectile dysfunction and incontinence could be symptoms of long COVID.Getty Images/iStockphoto
The study suggests that particular groups of people are more likely to develop long COVID, namely females, younger people and those belonging to a black, mixed or another ethnic group.
Researchers also reported people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, smokers and people who are overweight, obese or have a wide range of health conditions were associated with persistent COVID symptoms, also finding biological sex and ethnicity also appear to play a role.
Dr. Shamil Haroon, associate clinical professor in public health at the University of Birmingham and senior author of the study, said the “research validates what patients have been telling clinicians and policymakers throughout the pandemic.”
“The symptoms of long COVID are extremely broad and cannot be fully accounted for by other factors such as lifestyle, risk factors or chronic health conditions,” Haroon added.
“The symptoms we identified should help clinicians and clinical guideline developers to improve the assessment of patients with long-term effects from COVID-19, and to subsequently consider how this symptom burden can be best managed.”
Ontarians are being told to get up to date on their COVID shots as a summer wave fuelled by the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has likely begun.
It’s a particularly important message in Hamilton where booster uptake has been sluggish.
“The third vaccine dose is critical to protect against severe disease,” stated an advisory Wednesday by Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
Its message to the public provides a guide of what Ontarians need to know about the seventh COVID wave.
Has a new wave started?
The science table declared a likely new wave on Wednesday. On the same day, Hamilton public health reported COVID transmission was increasing for the first time since April.
Both look to a number of measures, including rising wastewater samples with COVID-19 detected.
The number of tests coming back positive is above 10 per cent provincially for the first time since May. For Hamilton, it went up to an average of nearly nine per cent on June 30 from six per cent on June 16.
About 80 per cent of public health units are seeing exponential growth in cases. In Hamilton, average daily new cases were up to 62 on July 3 from 25 on June 6. Cases are a significant underestimate.
What is driving the wave?
Highly-contagious Omicron subvariants, particularly BA.5, are fuelling the summer wave.
“You can be reinfected by BA.5 even if you have recently been infected with an earlier strain,” stated the science table.
However, it doesn’t cause more serious illness.
“Current evidence does not suggest BA.5 is more severe or that it will lead to a rise in hospitalizations as large as previous waves,” stated the science table.
What if I get infected?
“Infections can leave you feeling unwell, and be disruptive to your family and work life,” stated the science table. “Each infection puts you at risk of long COVID.”
While the risk of severe illness isn’t higher with BA.5, it’s also not zero. The science table reported the first increase in COVID hospitalizations since May.
“If BA.5 spreads widely, we may see a rise in deaths among higher risk groups,” stated the science table.
What about the health-care system?
“Hospitals are already very strained,” warned the science table. “Any surge comes at a time when hospitals are already dealing with staff shortages and record wait times — this impacts all of us.”
Hamilton’s hospitals had 700 job openings they couldn’t fill as of May and 292 staff self-isolating as of Wednesday.
In addition, overcrowding on the wards and high numbers of patients coming to the emergency departments have resulted in ambulances waiting hours to off-load patients, causing a spike in “Code Zero” events in June. Code Zero is when one or no ambulances are available to respond to emergencies.
Hamilton’s hospitals also have pandemic backlogs they are trying to clear, including nearly 15,000 surgeries as of March.
At the same time, there are still COVID patients being admitted.
“Hospitalizations remain higher than at any time last summer,” stated the science table.
Do I need to wear a mask?
“Going back to wearing a mask again in crowded indoor public spaces is a good way to protect yourself until the wave is done,” stated the science table.
Hamilton public health also “strongly recommends wearing a well-fitting mask indoors, especially when it’s crowded.”
The science table suggested a high-quality surgical mask, KN95 or N95.
“Ventilate as much as possible by opening windows and doors,” stated the science table. “Choose lower risk alternatives — for example, enjoy the great weather by gathering with friends outdoors instead of indoors.”
You can still enjoy the summer while reducing your risk of getting COVID, urged the science table.
“Unfortunately, a recent infection may not protect you very well from reinfection with BA.5,” it stated. “So, as we’re entering a new wave, it’s worth re-engaging with multiple layers of protection to reduce risk.”
Does a booster make a difference?
“Ensure your vaccinations are up to date,” stated the science table. “It provides significant additional protection against serious illness.”
Hamilton data shows the staggering difference COVID shots make. The unvaccinated have a hospitalization rate of 434.1 per 100,000 population compared to 75.8 for those with three shots. The risk of being admitted to the intensive care unit is 12 times higher for the unvaccinated than the boosted.
But coverage remains low, with fewer than 50 per cent of Hamiltonians age 18 to 39 boosted. Coverage for kids is even worse, with only 17 per cent of those age 12 to 17 having three shots.
“New vaccines targeted to emerging variants could be available this fall, but as there’s a wave starting, it makes sense to get the vaccines you are eligible for now,” stated the science table. “If you are age 60 or over, or immunocompromised, and haven’t received your 4th dose, now is the time.”
The quadruple-vaccinated Dr. Anthony Fauci said he is experiencing a “much worse” COVID rebound after being treated with Pfizer’s antiviral medication Paxlovid.
The 81-year-old chief medical adviser to the White House revealed his health struggles while speaking remotely at the Foreign Policy Global Health Forum on Tuesday.
The nation’s leading infectious disease expert tested positive for COVID-19 on June 15 and was initially experiencing mild symptoms, according to a statement released at the time by the National Institutes of Health.
When his condition took a turn for the worse, he began a five-day course of Paxlovid, which was granted an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug administration in December 2021 to treat high-risk COVID patients in an effort to prevent hospitalizations and deaths.
Paxlovid is Pfizer’s antiviral drug that received emergency use authorization from the FDA in December 2021 to treat high-risk COVID patients. REUTERS
Fauci said Tuesday that after he recovered from his initial bout with the coronavirus, he tested negative for three days, but then tested positive again on the fourth day, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
“And then over the next day or so, I started to feel really poorly, much worse than in the first go-around,” Fauci said. “So I went back on Paxlovid and right now I am on my fourth day of a five-day course.”
The scientist added that he is feeling better but “not completely without symptoms.”
In April, the Biden administration announced it was expanding the availability of Paxlovid, touting it as “one of the most effective treatments in our nation’s medicine cabinet.”
A month later, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning regarding a COVID-19 rebound after Paxlovid treatment.
Dr. Fauci said he had completed a five-day course of Paxlovid, after which he tested positive again for COVID and was feeling much worse.REUTERS
The agency said some patients who were prescribed a course of Paxlovid experienced a recurrence of COVID symptoms or tested positive for the disease between two and eight days after the initial recovery.
The CDC suggested that “a brief return of symptoms may be part of the natural history of (COVID-19) infection in some persons, independent of treatment with Paxlovid and regardless of vaccination status.”
The statement added that there have been no reports of severe illness associated with rebound cases.
According to a new study by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, COVID-19 rebound after Paxlovid treatment was likely caused by insufficient exposure to the drug because not enough of it was getting to infected cells to stop all viral replication.
The authors of the study suggested this may be due to Paxlovid being metabolized more quickly in some patients, or that the drug needs to be delivered over a longer treatment duration.
The coronavirus pandemic could have been much worse without vaccines, according to a new study that claims the number of deaths recorded worldwide from the coronavirus would be more than triple than it is today.
In the year after the vaccine was first introduced in December 2020, more than 4.3 billion people received an inoculation, saving 20 million lives, according to research published Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
If the World Health Organization’s goal of 40% vaccination coverage by the end of 2021 in low-income countries had been met, an additional 600,000 lives would be spared, the study said.
The findings “quantify just how much worse the pandemic could have been if we did not have these vaccines,” said lead Imperial College London researcher Oliver Watson.
“Catastrophic would be the first word that comes to mind,” Watson said of the deaths that would have occurred without widespread vaccination.
More than 6.3 million people have died from the coronavirus, including more than a million Americans, according to Our World in Data. Over 40,000 New York City residents died from the virus, health officials said.
Researchers studied data from all but ten of the world’s 195 countries and found that vaccines prevented 19.8 million total deaths, including 4.2 million deaths in India and 1.9 million in the US.
One million people in Brazil were also spared death from the virus thanks to the vaccines, as were more than a half million people in both France and the United Kingdom, researchers said.
The study found that 14.4 million deaths were averted when only accounting for reported COVID-19 deaths, but the number of lives spared grew considerably when scientists accounted for deaths likely tied to the virus.
Around 4.3 billion people got a COVID vaccine in the year after it was introduced.AP
The study did have some significant limitations. China, the world’s most populated country, was among the countries excluded from the study due to the lack of information about the virus’ effect on its huge citizenry, researchers said. The effect of mask wearing, lockdowns and possible COVID-19 mutations in the absence of the virus were also not considered in the study.
An unpublished model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle estimated that 16.3 million lives were saved by vaccines.
“We may disagree on the number as scientists, but we all agree that COVID vaccines saved lots of lives,” the institute’s Ali Mokdad said, explaining that stricter policies would have been implemented worldwide if vaccines were not around during the delta variant surge.
“Although we did pretty well this time — we saved millions and millions of lives — we could have done better and we should do better in the future,” said Adam Finn of Bristol Medical School in England, who was not involved in Thursday’s published findings.
CHICAGO (WLS) — Illinois reported 6,406 new COVID cases and 8 deaths Wednesday.
There have been at least 3,274,360 total COVID cases as of Wednesday, including at least 33,796 related deaths in the state since the pandemic began.
As of Monday night, 1,138 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 120 patients were in the ICU, and 35 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
RELATED | Pfizer says its 3-shot COVID vaccine for kids 6 months to 5 years old 80% effective against omicron
IDPH officials reported a seven-day case average of 41.6 per 100,000 people.
A total of 22,270,391 vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois as of Tuesday, and 64.76% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 13,957.
RELATED | COVID reinfection likely to become more common without variant-specific vaccines, experts say
Chicago’s top doctor expects the city will move from the “medium” risk level of community transmission to “high” by Friday.
Dr. Allison Arwady is urging people who are unvaccinated or with underlying conditions to avoid indoor gatherings.
She does not anticipate the return of mask mandates unless more people are hospitalized.
In what seemed like an instant, COVID-19 became an inevitable aspect of everyday life more than two years ago — with no signs to suggest that we’ll ever see otherwise again.
As we look at our lives ahead with waves of new variants and “stealth” sub-variants, and seasonal vaccine boosters to match, it begs the question: Should we fear reinfection?
Doctors have recently confirmed that those infected with an earlier Omicron variant, which first appeared and spread rapidly last summer, can indeed test positive again for the new sub-variant.
Last week, as the latest strain — BA.2 or BA2.12.1 — made its presence known in New York City and clusters throughout the Northeast and Midwest, the US crossed a grim milestone: 1 million COVID deaths. Globally, we’ve lost more than 6 million.
The Post spoke to NYU Langone Health infectious diseases expert Dr. Michael Phillips about what we can expect from life with COVID as we know it.
Can you get infected with COVID twice — and who’s at risk?
There is no such thing as perfect immunity from COVID. Regardless of severity or immunization, someone who tests positive for the virus can become infected again at some point.
“Our hospitalizations have crept up over the past several weeks, particularly with this newer variant of Omicron,” Dr. Phillips told The Post. “But thankfully, the vast majority of people [who] get the infection tend to recover without too much problems.”
But there’s more at stake for some. People who have not received two doses of the mRNA vaccine, as well as those with weakened immune systems due to age, medications, preexisting illness or other clinical factors, such as poor physical fitness, are at a higher risk of reinfection and becoming severely sick with COVID-19.
Phillips warns against us “develop[ing] a laissez faire attitude about it.” While some relatively young, healthy and vaccinated individuals may become reinfected with only a mild case, the person they pass it to — potentially, someone with a weakened immune system due to age, medications, preexisting illness or other clinical factors, such as poor physical fitness — may not fare so well.
Omicron is “very, very different from prior waves of Delta,” Phillips added. “I think it shifted our game plan for sure.” Now more than ever the focus of prevention efforts is on protecting the ones at a greater risk of severe illness — and protecting yourself from COVID reinfection means also “protect[ing] the vulnerable.”
Can you be reinfected with the same COVID variant?
It’s certainly possible, particularly in those who are not vaccinated. Unlike earlier variants, Omicron has rapidly evolved into several sub-types, prompting simultaneous localized outbreaks. Meanwhile, there’s no telling how many positive cases of COVID-19 go unreported, whether due to lack of testing or absence symptoms warranting alarm. So whether to fear reinfection with the same niche strain may not be a pragmatic question to ask — because, by the time it’s answered, a new strain may already be here.
“There are so many of these other variants within that big family of coronaviruses, and we’re typically infected with three to four a year,” Phillips explained, most of which present as a mild cold.
Ideally, SARS-CoV-2 could fade into coronavirus obscurity like many of the others — but we aren’t there yet, and it’s too soon to say whether that’s a feasible outlook. “It’s still severe enough that that we have to be pretty mindful about,” said Phillips. “We just don’t know enough about future variants for us to take our guard down yet.”
New York City residents are currently on “high alert” as of Wednesday, May 18, 2022.New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
How long after getting COVID can you be reinfected?
This is another complicated question — especially for sufferers of long COVID, who appear to harbor low, even undetectable levels of the virus for weeks and months. For mild to moderate cases, people who test positive for COVID can expect their infection to clear within five to 10 days after their symptoms arose, or since their confirmed test result.
Nascent research suggests that the average immune system can fend off COVID reinfection for three to five months after the previous bout. That’s why, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who had a confirmed infection within the previous 90 days are not expected to quarantine after coming in contact with another infected individual.
But all bets are off about six months later, when antibodies are known to start waning — regardless of vaccination.
How long do COVID antibodies last?
Experts don’t know exactly. While those who survive COVID appear to be largely protected from repeat or severe illness for up to five months after the previous infection, there isn’t enough data available yet to be certain how long those COVID-specific antibodies linger, or even to confirm that the presence of antibodies guarantees immunity, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Immune system B cells give rise to COVID-specific antibodies, designed to attack the virus on sight, before it can penetrate tissue cells and reproduce. They begin to form within the first few days infection or vaccination, and continue to build for several weeks until they peak at around three months thereafter — when your COVID defenses are at their strongest.
The good news is that waning antibodies doesn’t mean we’re totally defenseless, as some B cells will remember the steps it previously took to create COVID antibodies during re-invasion. (Boosters, furthermore, help our immune system remember how to fight.) Meanwhile, our killer T-cells, the immune system’s backup line of defense, may not be so good at preventing the virus from entering the body, but they can spot an infected host cell — and destroy it before it multiplies to another cell. And while they’re more difficult to track, they do appear to be more faithful than fleeting antibodies.
“Those appear to stay much more robust,” said Phillips, adding, that “the T-cell response is probably more important for response to viral infections” in the long run.
Are COVID vaccines still effective?
“We don’t have to be paranoid about the emergence of a new strain … but we have to be thoughtful and ready for that.”
Dr. Michael Phillips, NYU Langone Health
Vaccines remain the best way to build up antibodies, the body’s primary line of defense against severe COVID-19 illness. While allowing oneself to become infected can also give rise to antibodies, it’s not worth the risk.
“I’m strongly pro vaccine, because of the problems that happen when you don’t get it,” said Phillips, who hinted at alternative forms of vaccination technology on the horizon as well.
Regardless of type, antibodies are known to wane after about six months since last infection or booster, making reinfection more likely to occur.
How often can you get a COVID booster?
For those on the two-dose vaccine regimen, a second round should be completed about six weeks after the first. However, it’s been well over a year since the vaccine was introduced, which means many patients completed those two rounds back in 2021.
Doctors expect that annually, even seasonally redesigned boosters against COVID-19 could become the norm — kind of like influenza, only different, and more troubling: One flu season sees just one or two major strains globally, allowing researchers time to prepare vaccines. “It’s not this, sort of, constant changing during a ‘season,’ ” said Phillips, like COVID-19 has done.
Currently, only those who have a weakened immune system and people age 50 or older who got their first booster four months ago are being recommended for a second booster by the CDC — which is, altogether, a good sign.
Said Phillips, “We don’t have to be paranoid about the emergence of a new strain … but we have to be thoughtful and ready for that.”
