Delta variant spells more caution
With the covid-19 pandemic threatening the entire world with new variants all the time researchers have been left baffled by the behavior the deadly virus has been exhibiting over the past two years.
India and rest of the world has grappled with two successive covid-19 waves and experts have been predicting a much deadlier third wave with a new variant of the virus threatening human kind.
Though a lot has been achieved by scientists as many potential vaccines have been developed but the new variants have been posing new threats and challenges. The threat becomes all the more difficult to tackle as various developing nations have witnessed vaccine hesitancy among its people.
Even in various India states people have been avoiding the vaccine despite the fact that the pandemic has threatened the entire population over the months that have gone by.
Vaccines have proved to be an effective shield in fighting the coronavirus. A person can develop immunity the ability to resist infection in two ways: either after being infected with a virus or by getting vaccinated. However, immune protection isn’t always equal.
The difference in immune response between vaccination and infection seems to be even greater when dealing with new variants. In early July, two new studies were published that show COVID-19 vaccines, though slightly less effective than they are against the older strains of the virus, still seem to provide excellent immune response against the new variants.
Researchers looked at how antibodies bind to new variants of the coronavirus and found that people who were previously infected with coronavirus might be susceptible to the new strains, while people who were vaccinated were more likely to be protected.
COVID-19 vaccines offer a safe and reliable path to immunity against both the older strains of coronavirus and against emerging strains, especially the new delta variant.
COVID-19 vaccines generate both antibody and T cell responses and these responses are much stronger and more consistent than immunity after natural infection. One study found that six months after receiving their first dose of the Moderna vaccine, 100% of people tested had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. This is the longest period that has been reported in published studies so far.
In a study looking at the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, antibody levels were also much higher in vaccinated people than in those who had recovered from infection.
Therefore, vaccination holds the key to the fight against the virus and people need to shun vaccine hesitancy and hold on to the vaccine to survive the pandemic.
KV Network
