Antibodies
Who knows?
Yesterday I looked up from my computer at around one in the morning only to realize my kids and husband had gone to bed, the lights were out, the dog was snoring (and farting) and I had just lost two hours of my life! What's worse is that my time was spent clicking on articles about my newest fear (seems I have a new fear every hour these days). My newest fear? That the immune response from the Covid vaccines may not last. “The Moderna Vaccine’s Antibodies May Not Last As Long As We Hoped” the Forbes title seemed to be YELLING at me. What? NOOOOO! I paused did some yogic breathing exercises and reminded myself not to be fooled by titles, and instead to actually read the whole article. Do you know what I found? The conclusion of this article (and the other 20 or so that I clicked on) was much less alarming. In fact, for my age group it was even positive, “For those 18–55 years old, the majority only show a slight decrease in neutralizing antibodies in the three months following their second vaccine dose” The article concluded with something that is even more important, “Due to the limited number of participants in this study, we cannot draw conclusions”. Every story I clicked on was the same, a scary title that inevitably ends with a “we just don’t know” conclusion.
The truth is what we know now is limited. We believe that the vaccine is safe and effective and will ward serious complications, and the kicker is that it should work for (wait for it), at least 90 days. Remember those two words. AT. LEAST. Science can’t give us long-term data. Why? Covid-19 is a brand spanking new disease! We also believe that the vaccination and the immunity that it brings can potentially bring us to herd immunity. This is good.
I had COVID-19 in March of 2020. When I recovered I was hopeful that I would have immunity. Now don’t get me wrong I was not out licking doorknobs, but I had hope that my prior infection would have a positive effect on myself and the people around me. A physician even told me, “Your antibodies are good they mean you won't be a getter or a spreader”. The hope lasted a few weeks, ending when the media outlets ran their fear-based headlines. Basically, they all said something like, “Antibody response from prior infection declines after 90 days of Covid-19 illness”. What the headlines never said, was “…for some”.
“Oh, you had Corona? Six months ago? Awe poor dear you don’t have antibodies anymore” my headline browsing, sometimes condescending friends would tell me. I wanted fact, not fear. So I got tested at around six months, and you know what, I did still have antibodies. Had my headline reading pals just ventured past the scary clickbait they would have seen the meat of the research which states… Until. Further. Data. Becomes. Available. Between those five words lies our own personal choice. We can choose hope or fear! It seems fear sells. A story titled “Antibodies-Who knows?” would likely not get the same amount of clicks. (Executive decision to make that my title and see what happens).
Our Google practice has influenced the voice of these headlines, as we have been on the search for what seems to be decidedly ominous. If you come out of your Covid infection and proceed to type into Google, “antibodies only…” what auto-populates is “antibodies only last 3 months”. It brings you to the answer it thinks you desire. But when you approach Google with a positive statement such as “antibodies last greater than…” BANG! Right there on the CDC website, I get this.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/3/20-4543_articl
The story is scientific, which I love, have I mentioned that I am an immunology geek? The takeaway for those of you who are not immunology geeks is this “in this study, we confirmed that rates of antibody positivity according to 3 commercial kits was still high at 8 months after infection, even in asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic participants (69.0%–91.4%)”. Ok, ok, that’s what I am talking about! Yes, I know this is a small study. It is a short study. It is all the stuff medical communities hate about all of the studies going on to date within this disease space. With a new infection, this is ALL we have, small, short-term studies that provide limited data for the medical community to interpret. Yet, what I also see in this conclusion is. HOPE. This hope indicates that we can potentially reach herd immunity much faster than we imagined.
Below is a GREAT example of what I am talking about when I say the titles are fearful and the conclusions provide hope.
THIS IS THE TITLE:
THIS WAS THE CONCLUSION:
The fact is to achieve herd immunity, at least 50 to 70 percent of the population needs to have immunity (either from a vaccine or natural infection).
I am 9 months post-infection and I feel blessed to say I retested for the third time and I still have double the detectable measure of antibodies to Covid-19. Does that mean everyone does? Nope, that means I do. That means, perhaps quarterly antibody checks may be valuable to help determine who needs vaccines first to help us get to herd immunity faster.
My husband is on immune suppression therapy (that is a happy/sad and beautiful story of heroic nature and brotherly love but I will save that for another post). Now with a patient taking immune suppression, you might think he definitely would not have antibodies after the three-month window, am I right? He literally takes a pill twice a day to suppress his autoimmune system. He tested his antibodies two weeks ago on the advice of a doctor from Weill Cornell Medical Center and guess what? He is still antibody positive. For me, I test my antibodies every three months, not based on the advice of a physician but because I want (NEED) to understand this freaky, rogue disease that robbed me of smell and taste, instilled anxiety, put neighbor against neighbor (would you have ever thought folks would lose friendships over masks?) and caused the closing of my small businesses. Honestly, I also test them to have an educated response for some of my snarkier friends. For now, currently, our IGG, neutralizing antibodies are positive, in the exact same way, that people who were recently vaccinated are positive.
Another truth that exists as we scream our antibody opinions to one another is that antibodies are not the whole immunity story. There are other immune systems cells and just like that favorite aunt who shows up to the family party just when things are going south and silently in the background smooths out the drama, these cells, natural killer cells, cytokines, T-cell, etc are also working to restore our bodies systems. There is still so much we don’t know about the science of this disease state. But the great news is we get to choose, the way we interpret data. We get to choose which message we want to hear based on how we search. We can search for and believe the sensational, clickbait scary headlines, or instead, we can dig a little deeper and connect with the hopeful conclusions. That is our choice.
If you want to flip the switch on the way you hear the news, then change your search process, and reframe your views. Instead of searching for what you fear, search instead for what you hope. As for me, me I’m gonna type into Google, “Kelly Martinsen is the most influential writer of our time (and also has managed to keep her antibodies to Corona Virus for life)”-Malama Pono
