Jumpsuit_boy t1_j79s80m wrote on February 5, 2023 at 4:14 AM

Reply to comment by BurrDurrMurrDurr in New evidence suggests that ‘hybrid’ immunity, the result of both vaccination and a bout of COVID-19, can provide partial protection against reinfection for at least eight months. Immunity acquired by booster vaccination alone seems to fade somewhat faster. by MistWeaver80

I stand corrected. Thank you. The non correlation between B cells and circulating neutralizing antibodies is interesting and given what you are studying pretty exciting. The second paper probably quashes my theory that the sustained circulation was due to exposure since it seems to maintain a constant level after two years. Two questions if you have time. Is this a similar reason for the smallpox vaccination lasting as long as it does? A lot of the vaccines for bacterial infections target the toxins produced by the bacteria so I have mentally separated vaccines for virus snd bacteria into two columns about how long they are effective. Given what you have pointed out just how terrible of a general rule is this?

Once again thank you got taking the time to point out that I was wrong. I do appreciate it.

shipsAreWeird123 t1_j7bragv wrote on February 5, 2023 at 4:54 PM

There hasn't been a ton of recent testing of the smallpox vaccine. We don't have smallpox challenge trials for example.

Smallpox immunity wanes after vaccination, but still can prevent infection and severe infection.

https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/7022/

Part of what makes the smallpox vaccine effective, is that smallpox is not circulating in the population and mutating. Smallpox is also a DNA virus, and DNA viruses tend to have fewer mutations, so vaccines continue to work for them, rather than the flu which is RNA and mutates like crazy. It's probably most effective to think about the antigen that the vaccine is training your body to target, and the delivery mechanism for that.

mRNA vaccines are really going to change the vaccine landscape.