Are You Protected from DELTA Variant?..Depends on THIS - Doctor Mike Hansen

[Rhiannon12866]

There are lots of factors that determine your level of protection from Delta Variant. Are you vaccinated? If so, which one? Have you had COVID already? Did you have COVID and the vaccine? Are you immunocompromised? Will the booster shot give you more protection? Since the delta variant is still fairly new, there are still many questions.

Most people after having a COVID infection, whether it's mild or severe illness, appear to have some protection against SARS-CoV-2 for about a year. This is based on a study published in Nature, that looked at recovered patients. There’s also other research showing that vaccinating these people significantly substantially enhanced their immune response to the virus, and gave them strong protection against variants of concern, such as the (B.1.617.2) delta variant. For example, researchers looked at immunity in a group of recovered adult patients 1 month and 6 months after their infection, and some of them even had a 12-month follow-up blood draw.

The first study had 149 participants who were considered to have recovered from COVID. About 10% were hospitalized with COVID. People were excluded from the study if they had long COVID. For example, if they had ongoing or persistent shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue fever, or loss of taste or smell. Of the original 149 people, 87 returned for the 6-month follow-up and 63 came back for the 12-month follow-up. 41% ended up getting at least 1 dose of an mRNA vaccine an average of 40 days before the 12-month follow-up visit. So what were the main takeaways from the study? Compared with 6 months prior, those who were not vaccinated maintained most of their plasma antibodies against the virus’s receptor binding domain (RBD). Also, their plasma, which contains antibodies, had similar neutralizing activity against a nonreplicating virus engineered with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Their memory B cells that produce anti-RBD antibodies were only slightly lower than at the previous visit and had evolved to produce a broader and more potent range of antibodies. However, their plasma had less neutralizing activity against the variants B.1.1.7 (alpha), B.1.351 (beta), B.1.526 (iota), and P.1 (gamma), with the greatest loss of activity against the beta variant first detected in South Africa. Compared with unvaccinated participants, those who had received at least 1 dose of the mRNA vaccine had higher plasma anti-RBD antibodies and a nearly 50-fold increase in neutralizing activity. So whats going on here? For those who’ve had COVID, vaccination boosts the memory antibodies that develop after infection, causing there to be a more robust response.

We are still learning about the delta variant with new studies coming out. A recent study in France looked at recovered patients’ immunity against the delta variant. Specifically, they looked at unvaccinated health care workers, and they appeared to have less protection against the delta and beta variants compared with alpha, and that was about a year after they recovered from mild COVID-19. In this group, 88% had neutralizing antibodies against alpha, compared to 47% against delta variant. But, for the recovered health care workers who had received 1 dose of either the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, or Moderna vaccines, they had a huge increase in protective antibodies against the delta, beta, and alpha variants. So the big takeaway here is that vaccinating people who had previous COVID will likely give them much higher protection against delta and other variants.

Weren’t they supposed to tweak the booster shot to accommodate the new variants? As of right now, the booster shot is going to be the same as the 1st doses, and not geneticially tweaked to accommodate new strains such as the delta variant. Why? Most likely because the booster’s job will be to simply boost the current immune system to get maximum protection against these strains. Until you have a variant that is escaping the vaccines, meaning lots of breakthrough infections that result in many hospitalizations and deaths, there likely isn’t a need to genetically tweak the current vaccine. But of course this can change with time if a new variant proves to escape the current vaccines. So in summary, level of protection against delta variant depends. If you had COVID, your level of protection is probably mediocre, but will likely fade with time. If you had just the vaccines, its probably more of the same, but in comparison, likely stronger protection. If you had COVID and the vaccine, your protection is likely through the roof, and probably would not need a booster anytime soon, but that is strictly my opinion at the time of me recording this video. Because that level of protection would likely be the same as someone who has not had COVID, but has had the mRNA vaccine in addition to the booster. But time will tell, and more studies on delta variant will come out soon.

[Lovie777]

1. Interesting . . ..

[Rhiannon12866]

2. There are a lot of details to absorb, but after viewing this only once so far, I came back with this

Getting the vaccine is the best protection possible - against all variants so far. Those thinking they have immunity because they've had Covid aren't nearly as protected as they would be if they also got vaccinated.

[SheltieLover]

5. Thank you for clarifying!

Way too tired to absorb more...

[IronLionZion]

3. Republicans are encouraging each other to get infected for natural immunity

which is the worst. Rand Paul is a famous one but there are many others online.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. That did come to mind when I watched this. Big surprise, they're wrong

There is some immunity after having Covid - if they don't die - but much greater immunity from getting the vaccine, including for those who survived Covid.

[marble falls]

6. Absolutely top notch stuff, Rhiannon!!!! Thank you!

[Rhiannon12866]

7. Thanks, my friend!

This doctor knows what he's talking about and he explains it simply and clearly enough that anyone can understand. It's just that there is so much here that I'll need to listen again - but then he also provides Cliff Notes!