ANALYSIS: A vaccine can provide better immunity than an actual infection. Here's why.

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Sat, 2020-10-03 10:31 — mike kraft

A vaccine can provide better immunity than an actual infection Vaccines have advantages over natural infection, including development that focuses the immune system against specific antigens and little risk of severe infection since antigens are derived from weakened virus or noninfectious virus material. Maitreyi Shivkumar, De Montfort University CNN

(CNN) Two recent studies have confirmed that two people previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, can be reinfected with the virus.

Interestingly, the two people had different outcomes. The person in Hong Kong showed no symptoms on the second infection, while the person from Reno, Nevada, had a more severe version of the disease the second time around. It is therefore unclear if an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 will protect against subsequent reinfection.

Does this mean a vaccine will also fail to protect against the virus? Certainly not. First, it is still unclear how common these reinfections are. More importantly, a fading immune response to natural infection. ...

Vaccines have other advantages over natural infections. For one, they can be designed to focus the immune system against specific antigens that elicit better responses.

For instance, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine elicits a stronger immune response than infection by the virus itself. One reason for this is that the vaccine contains high concentrations of a viral coat protein, more than what would occur in a natural infection. This triggers strongly neutralizing antibodies, making the vaccine very effective at preventing infection.

The natural immunity against HPV is especially weak, as the virus uses various tactics to evade the host immune system. Many viruses, including HPV, have proteins that block the immune response or simply lie low to avoid detection. Indeed, a vaccine that provides accessible antigens in the absence of these other proteins may allow us to control the response in a way that a natural infection does not. ...

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