Vaccination offers a more sustainable long term protection against coronavirus

Experts on Monday opined that vaccination is the only reliable and long-term source of protection in fighting coronavirus. But the immunity provided by the antibodies seems to last only for few months.

The group of experts comprising of Rajeeva Karandikar of Chennai Mathematical Institute; Shekhar Mande, Director General of CSIR, and M Vidyasagar of IIT Hyderabad has exclaimed that it’s very crucial to take into account that the number of cases doesn’t increase as is the case with countries like Italy, the UK and the US.

According to both the serological surveys and model predictions, a good percentage of India’s population has already developed a strong resistance against the virus along with some naturally formed immune responses.

In a statement, they reported, “Although the current evidence is suggestive of long-lasting immune memory, the immunity afforded by the presence of antibodies might be expected to last only for several months and not longer, while T – cell-mediated immunity might last longer. The most reliable longer-term protection is, however, provided through vaccination”.

It has further been added that there is a suggestion off late that a better and stronger immune response is achieved through vaccination in comparison to natural infection, and hence is the key to control the spread of the disease.

They further stated, “While this issue has not yet been settled decisively, some medical researchers are of the opinion that the presence of antibodies (caused by a previous infection) offers less protection against reinfection from a mutation of the virus, compared to vaccination”.

To conclude, it can hence be zeroed down to the fact that the global vaccination drive needs to be completed as fast as possible with the approved vaccines.