vaccinate or get corona” – Wel.nl

After Israel, the United Kingdom is also starting to distribute a third corona jab. That is not really necessary, believes professor of immunology Marjolein van Egmond. “It is especially important that as many people as possible get vaccinated.”

She explains in the Volkskrant from that it is logical that after a ‘booster shot’ the number of antibodies in the body goes up considerably again, but that this does not necessarily say much. “In addition to a short-term effect, the immune system also has a long-term effect. The vaccination also triggers a memory response, intended for when you come into contact with the same pathogen again in the future. For example, there will be few adults with antibodies against measles, but that does not mean that the moment you come into contact with measles, that memory reaction starts, you get new antibodies and T cells and you are still protected. That is the phase we are now in with the coronavirus After six months the antibodies decrease a bit, but everything indicates that the memory response is still perfectly present.’

A third injection is medically unnecessary, thinks Van Egmond. “Pfizer now says the effectiveness of its vaccine has fallen from 90 to 84 percent. They look at all infections, from a runny nose to serious illness. But the vaccine protects against hospitalization and death by 97 percent. That is still extremely high. .”

She therefore thinks it is more important that the rest of the world gets a first dose instead of giving Europeans a third shot. “It is especially important that as many people as possible are vaccinated. For the Dutch, the choice at the moment is no longer between having you vaccinated or not, but between getting vaccinated or getting Covid. This delta variant is so contagious that people who are not vaccinated are infected at some point anyway. That’s good to realize.”