Penn Institute of Immunology confirms people who recovered from COVID have a robust response to their first mRNA jab. However, they don’t appear to gain much after the second dose, according to research in Science Immunology on April 15, 2021. If you had the virus and need to know do I still need the vaccine then this post is for you.
However, If You Are ‘COVID Naive’ You Still Need Both Shots
The term ‘naive’ is a Penn State preference. We consulted our dictionary and discovered it means showing a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment. We’ll go with the thought because it summarizes the vaccine debate to our minds.
The researchers explain a COVID infection, or vaccination has two major outcomes. These results are, and we quote:
1… The production of antibodies by antibody secreting cells that can provide rapid serological immunity
2… The generation of long-lived memory B cells capable of mounting recall responses
Hence, the answer to the question do I still need the vaccine is whether your infection produced a strong-enough second outcome. Or whether you need a post-infection booster shot to secure your future immunity.
Drilling Down and Answering Do I Still Need the Vaccine
The team from Penn Institute of Immunology recruited 44 un-vaccinated healthy individuals, based on their own self-assessments. Then they gave each of them either the Pfizer, or Moderna vaccine to begin the study.
Of the 44 volunteers, 11 individuals had prior SARS-CoV-2 infections, ranging from 65 to 275 days before their vaccination. The team based their findings on four blood samples they took at four key time points.
Those trigger points were before the vaccine, two weeks after the first dose, the day of the second dose, and one week thereafter. This information allowed them to investigate the dynamics of their immune responses.
The volunteers who previously had COVID-19 had an adequate immune response after – but not before – their first dose. While the ‘COVID Naives’ still required both doses to achieve that level.
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Preview Image: COVID-19 Vaccine Responses
