How COVID-19 is changing immunity

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How COVID-19 is changing our immune systems By Alice Park Senior Health Correspondent COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon. But for most people who do get the virus, it's packing less of a punch, thanks to immunity built up from a combination of vaccines and previous infections. In a new paper, researchers in South Korea describe in more detail how that hybrid immunity works. It turns out that, when it comes to SARS-COV-2 viruses in the Omicron family, the part of our immune system that relies on T cells—which store long-term memory of every virus, bacteria, or pathogen we encounter—improves with every vaccine and infection. Using human immune cells in the lab, the scientists tested T cells from vaccinated people who had been infected with different Omicron viruses against variants that had emerged after their infections, and found that the T cells targeted those, too. That’s because these cells focus on conserved parts of SARS-CoV-2 that remain similar among the different Omicron variants. That’s good news for what we can expect from COVID-19 in coming years, at least if the variants remain in the Omicron family. But while we might be building hybrid immunity, the virus can still have negative effects. Other studies have shown that repeated infections can damage the brain, heart, and lungs—so avoiding infections in the first place is better for health in the long run. READ MORE Share This Story

WHAT ELSE TO READ Cameroon Starts World’s First Malaria Vaccine Program for Children By Associated Press The campaign due to start Monday was described by officials as a milestone in the decades-long effort to curb the disease. Read More » Earth 2.0°C: How to Make Passing the 1.5°C Climate Change Threshold An Opportunity By William Solecki The reality is that we're going to pass the 1.5°C climate change threshold. That doesn't mean we need to give up. Read More » What to Know About the Latest Advances in Managing Severe Asthma By Markham Heid New innovations in biologics and phenotyping excite doctors. Read More » Why Spicy Food Makes Your Nose Run—and Why It's Great for You By Markham Heid A plant compound called capsaicin has an ability to combat pain. (Originally published in 2019.) Read More » Sleeping Well Can Keep Your Heart Healthy By Tara Law New research finds that sleep plays an important role in protecting against cardiovascular problems like stroke. Read More »

AN EXPERT VOICE "If I go into a shop for a few minutes with a few people, [the risk of getting COVID-19] is very, very low. But if you go into 10 shops and do that every day, the risk can be low for each event, but cumulatively it can still sum to a significant risk." —Luca Ferretti, fellow at the University of Oxford's Pandemic Sciences Institute

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