Slowly but surely, more and more is becoming clear about the possible duration of protection of the approved corona vaccines. That’s how this week turned out known Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may provide years of protection against the coronavirus. And it turns out the first results from a study by the University of Oxford that antibodies remain elevated for at least a year after the first dose of AstraZeneca.
That is good news, say Ben van der Zeijst, emeritus professor of vaccines, and immunologist Dimitri Diavatopoulos of Radboudumc in Nijmegen. And it also has an effect on vaccination in the Netherlands: repeat shots may therefore only be necessary later.
“It all looks very good,” says Van der Zeijst, also former director of the Dutch Vaccine Institute and former head of Vaccines at RIVM. “At first we were afraid that a repeat shot would have to be planned after six months, but everything indicates that this is not necessary.”
What are antibodies?
In order to understand exactly what the research results mean, we must first consider what antibodies are exactly.
If you are vaccinated with a corona vaccine, your immune system reacts to it. It produces antibodies – which protect against infection – and t-cells (immune cells) that reduce the severity of the disease in the event of an infection.
Antibodies form in the mucous membranes of the airways and literally act like a shield, explains Diavatopoulos. “The antibodies capture the virus and prevent it from attaching to your respiratory tract and thus not multiplying.” The chance that you will become very ill or die from corona with antibodies in your body is negligible.
How a vaccine works is also explained in this video:
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