Thanks Jeffrey! What about the duration of Natural immunity?? I am over 65, healthy, fully vaccinated with three doses of original vaccine, the third dose given at the end of March. Then I got Covid from an August outdoor wedding that moved indoors during a rain storm. I was told to get a booster 120 days after testing positive for Covid. Your thoughts?
If we accept that the new shots are going to have very limited ability to prevent infection (which, based on a great deal of evidence, as well as anecdotal reports filtering in to me of many people getting infected weeks after their bivalent vaccine, I’m pretty sure is true) then we are talking about do you need increased protection from severe illness, and how well will the new boosters provide that. Your series of 3 shots helped protect you from severe illness 5 months after the last shot. In August your immune system got “vaccinated” by the real thing BA.4/.5. From the pace at which the new variants BQ1.1 and BF7 are spreading my prediction is they will be the dominant viral variants in 1 month and BA.4/.5 will be history soon after. (That’s just informed speculation) My reading of the tea leaves is that your combined vaccine and natural “hybrid” immunity will provide MUCH more long lasting protection from severe disease than 120 days. Following the logic train…. If they are advising you that you need a booster 120 days after hybrid immunity was created, wouldn’t you need another booster 120 days after that, and 120 days again after that? There is well documented evidence that we don’t get any longer lasting bump in immunity from each successive booster. Hope you are feeling well and fully recovered from Mr. Omicron.
Thanks Jeffrey! What about the duration of Natural immunity?? I am over 65, healthy, fully vaccinated with three doses of original vaccine, the third dose given at the end of March. Then I got Covid from an August outdoor wedding that moved indoors during a rain storm. I was told to get a booster 120 days after testing positive for Covid. Your thoughts?
If we accept that the new shots are going to have very limited ability to prevent infection (which, based on a great deal of evidence, as well as anecdotal reports filtering in to me of many people getting infected weeks after their bivalent vaccine, I’m pretty sure is true) then we are talking about do you need increased protection from severe illness, and how well will the new boosters provide that. Your series of 3 shots helped protect you from severe illness 5 months after the last shot. In August your immune system got “vaccinated” by the real thing BA.4/.5. From the pace at which the new variants BQ1.1 and BF7 are spreading my prediction is they will be the dominant viral variants in 1 month and BA.4/.5 will be history soon after. (That’s just informed speculation) My reading of the tea leaves is that your combined vaccine and natural “hybrid” immunity will provide MUCH more long lasting protection from severe disease than 120 days. Following the logic train…. If they are advising you that you need a booster 120 days after hybrid immunity was created, wouldn’t you need another booster 120 days after that, and 120 days again after that? There is well documented evidence that we don’t get any longer lasting bump in immunity from each successive booster. Hope you are feeling well and fully recovered from Mr. Omicron.
Thank you Jeffrey!
I'm not a doctor, so thanks Jeff for always adding some comments (and humor) for the layperson as well.
I had Covid 2 weeks ago. I’m been fixated on when to get my booster, but now I have a different perspective on it. Thank you!
Thanks for this update.