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How Long Are You Protected From COVID-19 After Taking The Vaccine? Experts Have The Answer For You

How Long Are You Protected From COVID-19 After Taking The Vaccine? Experts Have The Answer For You
How Long Are You Protected From COVID-19 After Taking The Vaccine? Expert Have The Answers For You

How long can these COVID-19 vaccines keep you protected from the infection? Here's what you need to know about the vaccine induced immunity.

Written by Satata Karmakar |Updated : September 17, 2021 12:07 PM IST

How long can you stay protected from the deadly coronavirus after getting the vaccine shots? According to the experts, after four months from the date when an individual gets the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the immunity starts fading. Yes, you read that right. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is less effective at preventing COVID-19 infection (classified as a positive PCR test) after a time period of 4 months. Talking about the percentage of the protection that fades away with time, experts said that the immunity against coronavirus wanes from 96% to 84%. However, the research is a preprint, meaning that its results have yet to be formally reviewed by other scientists. "Real-life data from Israel suggests that over-60s who received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in March 2021 were 1.6 times better protected against infection than those who received their second dose two months earlier," an expert quoted as saying.

Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Protection

Data for the Moderna vaccine shows that functional antibodies (those able to stop viruses from entering cells) persisted in most people for six months after vaccination. However, there was a gradual decrease in performance against the beta variant of the virus, and the study didn't assess the vaccine against the now-dominant delta variant.

AstraZeneca's And Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine

The study also suggested that both the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines' effectiveness against delta variant of COVID-19 were found to be less effective at preventing infection when facing this variant. Similar findings have been reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Should You Still Get The Vaccine Shots?

An ideal vaccine would completely prevent infection and so stop people from catching and spreading the virus. However, earlier on in the pandemic, reports appeared of people being reinfected with COVID-19 as well as of antibodies waning and high levels of antibodies are thought to be important in preventing infection from starting. So it's been suspected for a while that creating a vaccine that completely blocks infection wouldn't be possible. Indeed, antibodies are just one indicator of an effective immune response. We also need T lymphocytes that kill the virus, and immune memory to enable us to quickly produce lots of these killer T cells and antibody-producing B cells. Here the news is much more positive. Studies have shown that both killer T cells and immune memory persist well. What this could mean is that some people might not have enough antibodies to completely prevent infection, but can still fight the infection off and stop it from taking hold. If this were the case, you would expect vaccines to reduce the impact or severity of the disease. And this is where we are seeing good news.