A question I haven't had clearly answered is whether the "low to absent" efficacy of the "current vaccine schedule" (two shots of mRNA six weeks apart?), which in junebug's description of the study is distinct from vaccine + booster, is due to the efficacy of the vaccine in building antibody response (to fight future infection) or based on current antibody levels in those who have recently you've received a shot. Or both
In other words, are boosted people having better results because they've more recently had a shot and thus have antibodies already? As I understand it the boosters for pfizer and moderna have largely been identical to the first and second shots.
Does this question make sense?
I wonder when being "fully vaccinated" will include having had a recent booster.
I think i understand your question differently from what Louis answered (but he is on another level than both of us).
I think you are asking if the Booster is providing better immunity because it an extra dose or better because it is just more recent. It's going to be some of both. After exposure (virus or vaccine), you will make a cloud of circulating antibodies. Their presence makes a subsequent infection much more difficult for the potential offending virus. However, over weeks, those antibody levels will decrease. They have to. You can't have a ton of circulating antibodies remaining from every viral infection/vaccine you've every encountered. That would clog your arteries with protein antibodies. However, you maintain memory immune cells that are very specific to those proteins on the surface of the virus capsid. Therefore, when you are exposed again, you have a head start. You don't have to go through the process LG describes for designing the specific B cells and T cells. You already have ones that recognize the offender. They just need to proliferate and blast out their antibodies.
The booster does give that protection of a more recently exposure with circulating antibodies. It also "boosts' your overall immune response. So you can respond better even when those antibodies have declined. Finally, the booster is meant to extend your memory.
So, the booster makes your immunity better and better for longer.
There are several vaccines that involve boosters that provide what we consider lifelong immunity. This 3rd/booster dose is meant to improve immunity but it will also extend our immunity longer than the second. We will continue to follow to see how far that extension lasts.
Does that answer your question? I can give my summary of the immune response later if you are interested. Multi-tasking, so I hope that makes sense.
