Well, this year has been a ride. Starting off with a potential WWIII, continuing with the tragic loss of hall of fame athlete Kobe Bryant, 2020 has been one roller coaster of a year. But the most bizarre of it all was the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic swept the nation way back in March and it still has its grasp on us today. At the time it started, there was very little information on this virus. But now, due to our vast intricate technologies, we were able to find out lots of information on this virus. But, specifically, I want to talk about life after contracting the virus. See, normally when you have a virus and successfully heal from it, you develop antibodies so you will not get this type of virus again. The case is a bit different for COVID-19, or it might be the same. Read to find out!
This topic is very interesting because there have been more than 10 million people who have acquired the virus. The people that have successfully recovered from the virus want to know the main question: Will I be able to get this virus again? The answer isn’t so simple. Early on the data provided to us gave us hope that the immunity to this virus was possible, but numerous cases also suggest that this immunity to the virus is brief (on a larger scale). Nothing is definite as of now, there is more research to be done, but for now we remain hopeful.
So why do we say the immunity to the virus is brief?
We know there is hope because there is proof that people who have contracted COVID-19 produce antibodies that protect our immune system, but this production of antibodies lasts maybe 3 to 4 months based on the data provided. The length of time still remains unclear.
So how does this actually work?
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital tested three types of antibodies in blood samples: immunoglobulin G (IgG), immunoglobulin A (IgA), and immunoglobulin B (IgB). Immunoglobulin is a large Y-shaped protein used in the immune system to detect foreign invaders in the blood such as viruses. These proteins bind to these foreign invaders in order to fight them off. We learned from our unit with proteins that antibodies are a form of proteins that can influence the life of a molecule/virus. The most important of all the immunoglobulins stated above is IgG. The reason is because IgG has the potential to sustain immunity in the body. This is because when all three of these antibodies were found in the blood after being infected by COVID-19, IgA and IgB were obliterated by the spike protein found in COVID-19. But, IgG lasted in the stream for up to four months! Now, the researchers could not test IgG for that long, but the four months that they could observe showed that these IgG antibodies do persist to beat the virus! A more long term study is definitely needed. This study is also confirmed by another research group from the University of Toronto. This group also showed how IgA and IgB levels dropped rapidly about 12 days after infection while IgG levels remained steady.
So can you get COVID more than once?
Although it is very rare, there have been some cases where people contracted the virus more than once. But, there is no evidence that suggests that immunity is or is not possible. All in all, evidence shows that immunity after acquiring the virus is generally protective and the persistence of the IgG antibody provides hope for immunity to the virus. – Ghohesion
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