- What is the immunity after the first dose of the vaccine?
- How long is immunity after COVID-19 vaccine?
- Will we get vaccinated against COVID-19 every year?
How long does immunity after COVID-19 vaccine last? Is a single dose of Coronavirus vaccine effective? These are the questions people who are already vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who have the first dose of vaccination are still asking themselves. How long does immunity last after vaccination with Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, how long - after vaccination with Moderny? Will you need to get vaccinated for the coronavirus every year, as for the flu? Or maybe one vaccination is enough for life? We check what is known on this topic so far.
Vaccine immunity to COVID-19is acquired in a similar manner to that of other vaccines. Vaccines for COVID-19 available in Poland and in the European Union - i.e. Comirnaty by the Pfizer / BioNTech consortium and a preparation by Moderna - are mRNA vaccines.
Unlike vaccines, which put a weakened or inactivated pathogen into the body, mRNA vaccines train cells to make a protein (or a piece of it) that triggers the body's immune response. The antibodies produced by vaccination protect against infection in the event of contact with the virus.
The mRNA technology on the basis of which the vaccines were created is not new - scientists have been working on them for years, they have been studied, among others for Zika virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), rabies and influenza. The technology has also been tested in cancer treatment studies to stimulate the immune system to attack specific cancer cells.
What is the immunity after the first dose of the vaccine?
COVID-19 vaccines are administered in two doses, applied at specified intervals. After the first dose of the vaccine, the body begins to produce the immune bodies - T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes. However, immunity does not appear immediately: the body needs several weeks to be formed.
So it is possible - as the CDC (Center for Disease Prevention and Prevention) reminds on its website - that a person may become infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus just before or immediately after vaccination and then develop COVID- 19 because the vaccine did not have enough time to start protecting the vaccinated person.
Acc. data published inIn 2022, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine provides protection at the level of approx. 52% after the first dose. Protection does not appear until approximately 12 days after vaccination. As for the Moderny preparation, according to the document presented by the FDA, after the first dose, the vaccine provides 80.2 percent. protection.
Therefore, after the first dose of the vaccine, there is still a risk of contracting COVID-19 and still be careful following all safety precautions.
The second dose of the vaccine is administered after a minimum of 21 days (in the case of Comirnata) or 28 days (in the case of the Moderny vaccine). What is the immunity after two doses of the vaccine? Here the data are similar: both preparations ensure the effectiveness in preventing the disease at the level of approx. 95%. one week after vaccination.
How long is immunity after COVID-19 vaccine?
How long does immunity after COVID-19 vaccination last?It's not clear yet. The data at the disposal of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) show that people vaccinated with Comirnaty during clinical trials will be followed for the next two years in order to collect more information on the duration of immunity after vaccination.
For now, there is also a lack of data on how long immunity after the Moderna vaccine will last. Moderna's medical director Tal Zaks said at the JP Morgan medical conference that the Moderna vaccine should provide immunity for at least a year.
Will we get vaccinated against COVID-19 every year?
Experts disagree onwhether COVID-19 is a once-in-a-lifetime immunization , or whether the vaccination will have to be repeated every year, as will the flu vaccination. It all depends both on how long the immunity will last after vaccination against COVID-19 (and we will get to know this data in some time) and whether the vaccines will be effective against mutations of the coronavirus.
What is certain is that the immunity generated after vaccination is greater than that after COVID-19 disease, which results from the preliminary results of the third phase of vaccine research - said the director of the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw, General Prof. Grzegorz Gielerak in an interview on Channel One of Polish Radio. Prof. Gierelak also pointed out that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus does not mutate like the flu virus.