Long-term or Prior Immunity from COVID-19 1200 Studies COVID-19 Special Investigation Table of Contents • Will recovery from COVID-19 result in long term immunity? • More research published on the lasting effects of antibodies for those recovering from infection • Immunity lasting at least 17 years? • A better strategy going forward • What does a healthy immune response look like? The 2-Parts of the immune system • Will infection from COVID-19 impart a lasting immune response? • Another study validates the optimistic position that T-Cell immunity from other prior coronavirus infections may provide protection from COVID-19 • Three articles and a brilliant scientist expose the levels of misinformation • Why the narrative about falling antibody levels after COVID-19 infection is NOT cause for concern • T-cells are as important as antibodies, yet frequently left out of the discussion • You can check to see if you have T-Cell protect ion from COVID-19 • Leaving important basic scientific facts out of research also seems epidemic these days • November 2020 study shows that up to 25% of people may be immune to SARS-CoV-2 without ever being infected by it • What level of population immunity will it require with SARS-CoV-2? • Evidence of lasting immunity after infection refutes the suggestion that people that have had COVID-19 need to get the vaccine • Existing immunity from previous coronavirus infections • More evidence that immunological memory to infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus appears to be long-lasting • Majority are already immune against SARS-CoV-2 • Good news about T-cells providing certain levels of immunity from SARS-CoV-2 • A video overview of a promising study and lesson on why immunity should be lasting • My article on waning antibodies • More evidence of previous immunity providing effective resistance to SARS-CoV-2 • Another article supporting lasting immunity after recovery from COVID-19 • Government policies continue to defy the science • A new study showcases the advantage of natural infection over vaccine immunity with regard to SARS-CoV-2 variant strains • Calling out Francis Collins Director of NIH, for stating people who have had COVID-19 still need the vaccine, while citing a study suggesting that they don’t • Picture showing the various protein categories of the SARS-CoV-2 virus • Two new studies provide more evidence of lasting immunity after infection with SARS- CoV-2 • A study looking at two dozen other studies examining cross-reactivity to other coronavirus infections that provide protection against SARS-CoV-2 • Infection with other viruses may have a neutralizing effect against SARS-CoV-2. Did public lockdown measures aid in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and thus COVID-19 disease? • The amazing duration of protection from the human immune system • Natural immunity appears to outperform vaccine immunity in the Memory Cells produced and residing in the bone marrow to release more antibodies with the next challenge from the virus • NIH provides more evidence of long-term immunity after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Why doesn’t their policy follow the science published on their own web site? • 1200 Studies- The Truth Will Prevail eBook • 1200 Studies Monthly Newsletter Long-term or Prior Immunity from COVID-19 Will recovery from COVID-19 result in long term immunity? This is the million-dollar question that this eBook will provide an evidence-based answer to. Seasonality of respiratory viruses As a preface for this first article, I would like to present this chart depicting the 4 human coronaviruses that have been in regular circulation over many years. This chart looks at dates from June 01, 2019 - May 01, 2020. These coronaviruses contribute to approximately 15-20% of the cases of the “common cold”. Rhinoviruses also follow a similar pattern and make up the largest percentage of the common cold viruses. Notice that they peaked in December and decline in March and April in 2020. This is the same pattern that they follow annually. This spike also seems to follow the same pattern we are seeing with SARS-CoV-2 over these last two seasons. This “seasonality” as it is called is also true for influenza and other influenza-like illnesses caused by respiratory viruses each year. Now we will look at a May 2020 article from Science Magazine and I will tie this into the chart we just looked at. Science Magazine published an article May 14, 2020, titled T cells found in COVID-19 patients ‘bode well’ for long-term immunity. The results reported are very encouraging for the hope for the prospects of herd immunity from the SARS-Co-V-2 virus. From the article: Immune warriors known as T cells help us fight some viruses, but their importance for battling SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been unclear. Now, two studies reveal infected people harbor T cells that target the virus—and may help them recover. Both studies also found some people never infected with SARS- CoV-2 have these cellular defenses, most likely because they were previously infected with other coronaviruses. “This is encouraging data,” says virologist Angela Rasmussen of Columbia University. Although the studies don’t clarify whether people who clear a SARS-CoV-2 infection can ward off the virus in the future, both identified strong T cell responses to it, which “bodes well for the development of long-term protective immunity,” Rasmussen says. The more than 100 COVID-19 vaccines in development mainly focus on another immune response: antibodies. These proteins are made by B cells and ideally latch onto SARS-CoV-2 and prevent it from entering cells. T cells, in contrast, thwart infections in two different ways. Helper T cells spur B cells and other immune defenders into action, whereas killer T cells target and destroy infected cells. The severity of disease can depend on the strength of these T cell responses. Using bioinformatics tools, a team led by Shane Crotty and Alessandro Sette, immunologists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, predicted which viral protein pieces would provoke the most powerful T cell responses. They then exposed immune cells from 10 patients who had recovered from mild cases of COVID-19 to these viral snippets. All of the patients carried helper T cells that recognized the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which enables the virus to infiltrate our cells. They also harbored helper T cells that react to other SARS-CoV-2 proteins. And the team detected virus-specific killer T cells in 70% of the subjects, they report today in Cell. “The immune system sees this virus and mounts an effective immune response,” Sette says. The results jibe with those of a study posted as a preprint on medRxiv on 22 April by immunologist Andreas Thiel of the Charité University Hospital in Berlin and colleagues. They identified helper T cells targeting the spike protein in 15 out of 18 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The teams also asked whether people who haven’t been infected with SARS-CoV-2 also produce cells that combat it. Thiel and colleagues analyzed blood from 68 uninfected people and found that 34% hosted helper T cells that recognized SARS-CoV-2. The La Jolla team detected this cross-reactivity in about half of stored blood samples collected between 2015 and 2018, well before the current pandemic began. The researchers think these cells were likely triggered by past infection with one of the four human coronaviruses that cause colds; proteins in these viruses resemble those of SARS-CoV-2. The results suggest “one reason that a large chunk of the population may be able to deal with the virus is that we may have some small residual immunity from our exposure to common cold viruses,” says viral immunologist Steven Varga of the University of Iowa. However, neither of the studies attempted to establish that people with cross reactivity don’t become as ill from COVID-19. End of article excerpts… So, essentially, because the SARS-CoV-2 virus has more similarities, It is estimated that about 20% of what we call the common cold, are caused by one of the 4 persistent coronaviruses that circulate annually. Personally, I never thought about the benefits of getting and suffering from the common cold. But now I have a whole different perspective on that. Read the rest of the article here: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/t-cells-found-covid-19-patients- bode-well-long-term-immunity?# More research published on the lasting effects of antibodies for those recovering from infection This version of this study was published May 23rd, 2020 in the journal BioRxiv and titled Systemic and mucosal antibody secretion specific to SARS-CoV-2 during mild versus severe COVID-19. From the article: “When symptomatic, COVID-19 can range from a mild flu-like illness in about 81% to a severe and critical disease in about 14% and 5% of affected patients, respectively.” “As with other coronaviruses, symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 disease causes an acute infection with activation of the innate and adaptive immune systems. The former leads to the release of several pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-6 … Subsequently, B and T cells become activated, resulting in the production of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies, comprising immunoglobulin M (IgM), immunoglobulin A (IgA), and immunoglobulin G (IgG). Whereas coronavirus-specific IgM production is transient and leads to isotype switch to IgA and IgG, these latter antibody subtypes can persist for extended periods in the serum and in nasal fluids. Whether SARS-CoV- 2-specific IgG antibodies correlate with virus control is a matter of intense discussions.” “Interestingly, some of the SARS-CoV-2-exposed healthcare workers with negative SARS-CoV-2-specific IgA and IgG serum titers had detectable SARS-CoV-2-specific IgA antibodies in their nasal fluids and tears.