immunity
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Early Evidence Suggests Pfizer Vaccine Works Against New Coronavirus Variant
Scientists are hard at work testing out whether mutations found in new variants of the coronavirus could bypass the immunity offered by currently developed vaccines. The first results from this work are encouraging: They suggest that the Pfizer vaccine is still effective against one important mutation found in these variants. However, more research is still…
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One Kind of Immunity to the Coronavirus Lasts at Least Six Months, Study Finds
New research this week offers some hope for at least one aspect of our immunity to the coronavirus that causes covid-19. The study, conducted by researchers in the UK, found evidence that certain T cells created to combat the coronavirus during infection continue to show a “robust” response at least six months later. This cellular…
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Common Cold Coronaviruses Might Prime the Immune System to Recognise SARS-CoV-2
A group of scientists think they’re closer to understanding why some people’s immune systems seem to recognise the coronavirus that causes covid-19, despite the person never having been infected by it. The team’s new research released Monday suggests that past infections with much milder but related coronaviruses that cause the common cold can produce T…
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How Long Could Covid-19 Immunity Last? It’s Not Just About Antibodies
A recent study making the rounds everywhere is certainly unnerving: It found that previously infected people can lose almost all of a type of antibody to the coronavirus within three months. But the study’s findings are far too limited to assume that immunity to the virus is so short-lived.