One Covid-19 Vaccine Shot May Not Be Enough As Immunity Gained By Patients Post Recovery Lost In Months

Individuals who have recovered from Covid-19 may lose the acquired immunity a few months later as per a research by a King's College team in Britain, The Guardian has reported.

The study which is a first of its kind has also claimed that the Novel Coronavirus may keep reinfecting people like common cold.

As per the study, while 60 per cent of Covid-19 patients developed a potent antibody response during the infection peak, only 17 per cent of them managed to retain it three months later. Antibody levels in this periods were observed to have fallen over 23 times and in many cases became undetectable.

"People are producing a reasonable antibody response to the virus, but it’s waning over a short period of time and depending on how high your peak is, that determines how long the antibodies are staying around", the study's lead author Dr Katie Doores was quoted as saying.

"Infection tends to give you the best-case scenario for an antibody response, so if your infection is giving you antibody levels that wane in two to three months, the vaccine will potentially do the same thing", adds Dr Doores.

She claims that people thus may need to take booster doses and one shot may not be enough.

The study's findings also strike a blow on the concept of herd immunity which will be rendered meaningless if a same individual can keep getting reinfected.