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Vaccines, what the fourth dose is and how it works – Health

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Vaccines, what the fourth dose is and how it works – Health

Variants and sub-variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus continually strain our immune system and we know that the vaccines we have available were designed against the original version of the virus, which is now gone. So what does it mean to get vaccinated and what protection do you receive? “The vaccine is the only real weapon we have,” immunologist Guido Forni, former professor of Immunology at the University of Turin and member of the Covid-19 Commission of the Accademia dei Lincei, told ANSA.

“The vaccines, both those with mRna and the protein one, Novavax, work very well and induce a good immune response that persists over time, but the virus against which they are directed no longer exists. Consequently – observes Forni – only 25% of the antibodies generated by these vaccines is able to fight the variants of the virus in circulation, but this 25% is not enough. If the Wuhan virus were still circulating, repeated boosters would not be necessary “.

Hence the need for boosters, but how many does the immune system tolerate? “The number depends on age. For example, young people do not need boosters, while the elderly have to deal with immunosenescence, which is the increasing difficulty of the immune system to remember past experiences. Vaccines are a kind of thing. gymnastics of the immune system, which helps it to maintain a high response “.

Are there any tests that allow us to understand if and how much immunity is efficient? “There are, but they are complex and used for research purposes, they are not quick tests that can be done in the hospital.” Can the antibody counting test help? “We can think of antibodies as anti-virus missiles: of course the more we have, the more protected we are, but we have to know where the batteries are. That is to say we can assess how many there are, but we cannot determine how accurate they are against the Spike protein of the SarsCoV2 virus circulating now “. We must then consider that there are antibodies of different types: “We know that there are very important antibodies, capable of blocking the infection: they are the secretory antibodies that are found in saliva and in the secretions of the nose and bronchi. But most of the current vaccines do not it induces them and for this reason they protect well from the disease, but not from the contagion “. The antibodies generated by current vaccines instead circulate in the blood.

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What does it mean to get vaccinated now and then with the new dose in the fall? “There is no particular risk; the only one is to respond better to the part of the virus that we have already seen and that the new part, for example the one induced by variants, responds less well”. Are getting sick and getting vaccinated the same thing? “They are two different things. The vaccine stimulates a person who is well, like a gymnastics for the immune system, getting sick is like rising again after a war of our body against invading viruses. The answers are different. The best thing is to get sick and get vaccinated,” in order to acquire a sort of super immunity thanks to two different stimuli. In this regard – concludes Forni – heterologous vaccination is very advantageous, for example based on the combination of an mRna vaccine and a protein vaccine “.

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