The science of COVID-19 booster vaccines 🧵
Will the boosters works?
Yes.
They work really well. Great clinical trial results.
Antibody levels go back to peak or 4x more, and the booster teaches your immune system to recognize Delta even better.
Many vaccines are 3-doses
Will the boosters works?
Yes.
They work really well. Great clinical trial results.
Antibody levels go back to peak or 4x more, and the booster teaches your immune system to recognize Delta even better.
Many vaccines are 3-doses
You will also probably have more durable immune memory after the COVID vaccine booster (including antibodies, CD4 T cells, CD8 T cells, and memory B cells). Not guaranteed, but likely.
That's because your immune system is basically a cost:benefit analysis machine.
That's because your immune system is basically a cost:benefit analysis machine.
Immune memory / protective immunity has a real caloric cost over time. If your immune system sees something once, it doesn't tend to commit much energy into making memory and sustaining all of those antibodies. But if your immune system sees an infection 3 times (or a vaccine)…
the immune system thinks "Wow, I keep getting infected with this! That sucks. Let's put up better defenses,” and sustains more antibodies, memory T cells, and B cells, at closer to peak levels.
Discussed more here:
Discussed more here:
Lots of vaccines are 3-dose regimens. Then with boosters every 10 years.
The hope was for it to be simpler for COVID, but that maybe hasn't worked out with Delta variant. Delta is tougher to stop. It is so transmissible.
The hope was for it to be simpler for COVID, but that maybe hasn't worked out with Delta variant. Delta is tougher to stop. It is so transmissible.
The original coronavirus wasn't that hard for the immune system to stop, and 2-doses of vaccine worked amazing --even 1-dose was good. Most vaccines are a 3 dose regimen.
Will your immune system recognize other variants after a booster?
Yes.
The immune response becomes broader after the booster vaccination
Similar to what is talked about here.
science.sciencemag.org/content/372/65…
And has been shown in a series of memory B cell papers since then.
Yes.
The immune response becomes broader after the booster vaccination
Similar to what is talked about here.
science.sciencemag.org/content/372/65…
And has been shown in a series of memory B cell papers since then.
And the general topic here.
scientificamerican.com/article/your-i…
scientificamerican.com/article/your-i…
Adding to this thread the actual immune response data on boosters, for easy access. Moderna booster trial results were reported in May. 50mcg dose (Half dose) of original mRNA-1273, or Beta variant booster. In a full preprint: medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
Antibody data. No T cell data
Antibody data. No T cell data
Pfizer results are only available as a slide. Antibody data. No T cell data. 
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