the next phase of the pandemic to keep us safe from the virus so in a simplistic way when you recover from the virus or get the vaccine the body has antibody that is protect you and have memory cells to protect you and what we discovered is the apt bodies go down around four or five months and people get reinfection and the b-cells and t-cells provide really good protection against severe disease and hospitalizations in most people. what does that mean? that s why you see people who have had boosters get good protection from hospitalization and a greater disconnection between infection and hospitalizations and deaths in this phase. it poses a questions of if the antibodies continue to go down
get some sort of measure of just how protected i am? there aren t good correlates of protection, something that says that this is the measurement that one needs to know how well they are protected. and now with these variants, we re seeing how these antibody responses sort of take a hit. say you re in a situation where someone doesn t have antibodies anymore. if you were to measure their antibodi antibodies, you don t see them. does that mean they no longer have protection? not necessarily. there are several aspects to one s immune system that can drive protection. reporter: like b cells which can make more antibodies if the virus comes back. t cells which help activate the immune system and get rid of infected cells. antibodies in your blood naturally wane over time. think of it like security lights at your home. when there s an inntruder nearb,
of protection, something that says this is the measurement that one needs to know how well they are protected. and now with these variants, we re seeing how these antibody responses sort of take a hit. reporter: let s say you re in a situation where someone essentially doesn t have antibodies anymore. you don t see them. does that mean they no longer have protection? not necessarily. so, there s several aspects to one s immune system that can drive protection. reporter: like b cells, which can make more antibodies if the virus comes back. and t cells, which help activate the immune system and get rid of infected cells. antibodies in your blood naturally wane over time. think of it like security lights at your home. when there s an intruder nearby, they should turn on. but when there s no more threat, you want them to turn back off. why do we focus so much on antibodies? one aspect is that antibodies
protection, this is the measurement one needs to know how well they are protected. now with the variants, we re seeing how the antibody responses take a hit. let s say you re in a situation where someone essentially doesn t have antibodies anymore, you re to measure their antibodies you don t see them, does that mean they no longer have protection? not necessarily. there is several aspects to one s immune system that can drive protection. reporter: like b cells which can make more antibodies if the virus comes back and t cells which help activate the immune system and get rid of infected cells. antibodies in your blood naturally wane over time. think of it like security lights at your home. when there is an intruder nearby, they should turn on. when there is no more threat, you want them to turn back off. why do we focus so much on antibodies? one aspect is that antibodies
protection. something that says this is the measurement one needs to know they are protected. now with these variants, we see how they take a hit. reporter: say someone essentially doesn t have antibodies anymore. does that mean they no longer have protection? . not necessarily. there are several aspects to one s immune system that can drive protection. reporter: like b cells, which can make more antibodies if the virus comes back. and t cells, which help activate the immune system and get rid of infected cells. antibodies in your blood naturally wane over time. think of it like security lights at your home. when there is an intruder near your home, they turn on. why do we focus so much on antibodies in. one aspect is they are one of