How well are we protected six months after infection or vaccination?
Researchers are gaining a better understanding of how long a passed infection or vaccination protects against the virus. The latest findings are rather reassuring, also with regard to the virus variants.
How long and how well does the human immune system remember an encounter with SARS-CoV-2 or an encounter with at least fragments of the virus, as occurs with vaccination? One year? Two years? And how well is one still protected from infection with the coronavirus during that time?
Carlos A. Guzmán heads the Department of "Vaccinology and Applied Microbiology" at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig (Image: HZI).