Good News: Natural Immunity to the Coronavirus May Last Years, Study Suggests

Gizmodo reports that new research suggests a robust immune response to COVID-19 lasts for at least eight months, perhaps even years, in most survivors. The study considered 180 volunteers who had confirmed COVID-19, including from samples collected over six months post-infection. Concentrations of antibodies to the virus fell slightly following infection but remained stable afterwards for up to eight months in most people. T cells specific to the virus also declined slightly after three months but held at steady levels afterward. Memory B cells, which help reactivate the immune system in response to a familiar threat and produce more antibodies when needed, were actually more abundant at six months than at one month. This is especially encouraging, since these cells are vital to immunity that lasts for years. All in all, 95 percent of study subjects had some degree of immune memory in their antibodies, B cells, and T cells to the virus five to eight months following symptom onset. The authors therefore suggest that "durable immunity against secondary COVID-19 disease is a possibility in most individuals."