New Research: COVID Infection Antibodies Could Last Years

Researchers learn more about acquired immunity to COVID-19 and the impacts of mass vaccination

Suppressed information about effective treatments for COVID has left many people feeling vaccination was their only option. CDC/Unsplash

New research is revealing surprising things about the virus that causes COVID-19 and how humans react to it, including a study that finds the antibodies we develop after infection may last much longer than new reports led us to previously believe.

In one recent study published in Circulation Research, researchers discovered that the spike protein shell of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can damage your endothelial cells—independent of the effect the virus has on cells—and may be responsible for many of the vascular and long-haul symptoms.

In other words, some of the symptoms people experience from COVID-19 are a result of the shape of the coronavirus’s spikey shell rather than the specific actions the virus produces in the cells it invades.

The researchers arrived at this conclusion by creating a cell surrounded by spike (S) protein without a virus and then testing it on Syrian hamsters.

They administered the spike protein to the hamsters’ lungs and found it was enough to cause damage and inflammation. The experiment was replicated in the lab using cell cultures.

ACE2 is a protein on the surface of many cell types that plays several roles in the body and has the unfortunate quality of binding with SARS-CoV-2 and allowing it entry into the cell. The data showed that when the S protein attached to the ACE2 receptor, it disrupted signaling to the mitochondria and caused damage and fragmentation.

Senior co-author of the study Uri Manor explained that the S protein receptor was enough to damage vascular cells “by virtue of its ability to bind to this ACE2 receptor.” Some of the long-haul symptoms of COVID-19 may be related to such vascular damage.

In other words, even without entry into the cell, the spike shell caused problems, possibly by blocking the ACE2 receptor from doing the work it was supposed to be doing.

While that study revealed some bad news, another revealed some good news. A more recent study published in Nature found patients who recovered from COVID developed an immune response that could protect them for years.

Evidence Suggests COVID Antibodies May Last Years

In the study, the researchers began with the understanding that protective antibodies are generated by long-lived bone marrow plasma cells. They noted that research in 2020 reported people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed a rapid decline in serum antibodies in the first few months after infection.

The question the researchers sought to answer is whether this reduction in antibodies indicated the bone marrow plasma cells generating immunity against the virus may also have been short-lived. The researchers engaged a group of 77 participants who had a mild COVID-19 infection.

The group donated blood samples at three-month intervals beginning one month after they had recovered from their initial infection. Eighteen of the participants also donated bone marrow approximately seven or eight months after the infection, and five came back four months later for a second bone marrow extraction.

As the researchers expected, the levels of antibodies in the blood dropped quickly within the first month. However, some of the participants had detectable antibodies even after 11 months.

The testing also showed 78 percent of the bone marrow samples had antibody-producing cells for SARS-CoV-2. Researchers also tested bone marrow of 11 people who had never had COVID-19. In their bone marrow samples, there were no antibody-producing cells.

The team concluded that these bone marrow plasma cells remained inactive, or sleeping, but didn’t disappear, indicating they are part of a long-lived immunity.

“Overall, we show that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces a robust antigen-specific, long-lived humoral immune response in humans,”concluded the researchers.

Senior author of the study Ali Ellebedy, an associate professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, pointed out one flaw in assuming natural immunity against COVID-19 had waned by measuring antibodies in the blood.

“Last fall, there were reports that antibodies waned quickly after infection with the virus that causes COVID-19, and mainstream media interpreted that to mean that immunity was not long-lived. But that’s a misinterpretation of the data. It’s normal for antibody levels to go down after acute infection, but they don’t go down to zero; they plateau,” he said in a statement released by the university.

“Here, we found antibody-producing cells in people 11 months after the first symptoms. These cells will live and produce antibodies for the rest of people’s lives. That’s strong evidence for long-lasting immunity.”

“These cells are not dividing. They are quiescent [inactive], just sitting in the bone marrow and secreting antibodies. They have been doing that ever since the infection was resolved, and they will continue doing that indefinitely.”

Humoral and Cellular Immunity: What’s the Difference?

There are two main areas of your immune system. The first is the innate immune response that has physical and cellular responses to pathogens. The purpose is for an immediate reaction to help prevent the spread of foreign bodies throughout the body.

Innate immunity is nonspecific and uses natural killer cells, macrophages, mass cells, and basophils at the cellular level, as well as skin, cough reflex, and membranes on a physical level.

Long-term immunity is tied to the adaptive immune system. This is specific to the pathogen invading your body. Adaptive immunity is also called acquired immunity and develops when your body is exposed to protein antigens. The immune system then builds specific defense mechanisms against those antigens.

Within the adaptive immune response are humoral and cellular immunity. Antibodies are part of humoral immunity. The humoral system is first on the scene to deal with foreign pathogens that are circulating or outside of infected cells. Cellular immunity is mediated by T lymphocytes and addresses pathogens inside infected cells.

The media reported that natural immunity against SARS-CoV-2 declined after a person recovered from the infection because levels of humoral immunity measured in the bloodstream decline as the person recovered. However, this decline is a natural response to any infection and is expected.

Recent data from the research into bone marrow immune cells demonstrates that while circulating humoral antibodies decline after an active infection, a high percentage of those who had been infected with mild disease continue to produce low levels of immune cells that would recognize the virus if the person was infected again and mount a significant defense against it.

Before COVID-19, it was acknowledged that a natural infection nearly always produces a better immune response in the body than a vaccine. The argument for vaccines was that it reduced the risk from diseases that may produce long-term disability or death, such as birth defects from rubella or liver cancer from hepatitis B.

But the same can’t be said for SARS-CoV-2. Vaccines against COVID-19 may not be a necessary health risk for many, especially when you consider the following. Practicing physicians such as Dr. Vladimir Zelenko have proven early treatment reduces death rates and long-haul symptoms; robust scientific reviews and multiple clinical trials have suggested use of ivermectin could have reduced COVID-19 deaths by as much as 75 percent, recent data demonstrate natural immunity is produced following a COVID-19 infection, and that natural immunity produces a better response than vaccines.

Doctor Warns if You Had COVID, Don’t Get Vaccinated

One international survey of 2,002 people found those who had recovered from a COVID-19 illness and received their first dose of the vaccine experienced “significantly increased incidence and severity of side effects.”

These side effects included fever, breathlessness, and severe effects that led to hospitalized care.

Retired cardiac surgeon Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, a strong proponent of vaccination programs, has raised concerns about the unprecedented nature of the COVID vaccination program, including the fact that public health authorities are recommending people who have recovered from COVID still get vaccinated. He believes that questions should be asked about specific vaccines and their potential side effects.

Noorchashm has written multiple letters warning people should be first screened for the presence of viral proteins before vaccination. In one letter, he warned that without screening, “this indiscriminate vaccination is a clear and present danger to a subset of the already infected.”

COVID Vaccine Deaths Exceed All Other Vaccines Over 15 Years

During a recent Texas state Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing, Dr. Peter McCullough, vice chief of internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center, testified that according to available data, early treatment could have prevented up to 85 percent of deaths from COVID-19.

Yet, despite being inexpensive and readily available, many of these early treatments have been censured and suppressed as public health officials have encouraged people to wait for a global mass vaccination campaign.

The result of waiting for a gene therapy vaccine has been devastating. Five months into the campaign, the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) shows that more than 4,200 people in the United States have died after getting the shot. Any other vaccine would have been pulled from the market by now.

For example, in 1976, 45 million people were vaccinated against the swine flu. After more than 500 cases of Guillain-Barre were reported with more than 25 deaths, the program was canceled.

Currently, health authorities have decided that more than 4,200 deaths from the COVID vaccine is either coincidental or inconsequential. When you consider the numbers, the death toll is 7,000 percent greater from the COVID-19 vaccine than during the swine flu vaccination campaign, which was canceled because the vaccine was deemed too risky.

These numbers are likely to be seriously underestimated since VAERS appears to be backlogged by about three months.

Even if the data were current, only 1 percent to 10 percent of adverse events after vaccination are ever reported, according to studies that have examined reporting ratios. This means that while the VAERS records 4,406 deaths as of May 21, this number may be significantly underestimated.

Death Rate May Rise This Fall and Winter

Although deaths from COVID-19 vaccines have already reached a historic level, I fear this may go even higher during the fall and winter months. One of the greatest wild cards of these vaccines is antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) or paradoxical immune enhancement (IPE).

I have detailed this issue in several articles including “How COVID-19 Vaccine Can Destroy Your Immune System” and “Will Vaccinated People Be More Vulnerable to Variants” In summary, ADE means the vaccine actually enhances the virus’s ability to enter and infect your cells, rather than enhancing your immunity against the infection. This results in more severe disease.

Fall and winter months are when most coronavirus infections occur, whether those are from SARS-CoV-2 or other coronaviruses responsible for the common cold. If ADE does turn out to be a common problem, then vaccinated individuals may be at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness and a potentially lethal immune reaction due to pathogenic priming.

If you or someone you love has already received a COVID-19 vaccine and are experiencing side effects, be sure to report it, preferably to all three of these locations:

If you live in the United States, file a report on VAERS.

Report the injury on VaxxTracker.com, which is a nongovernmental adverse event tracker (you can file anonymously if you like).

Report the injury on the Children’s Health Defense website.

Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder of Mercola.com. An osteopathic physician, best-selling author, and recipient of multiple awards in the field of natural health, his primary vision is to change the modern health paradigm by providing people with a valuable resource to help them take control of their health. This article was originally published on Mercola.com