Having taken epidemiology for my Hopkins MPH, I knew it was likely incorrect that you lose your antibodies in 90 days. I also knew that focusing on your antibody count left out the more efficacious part of the immune system which has memory and allows for a proliferation of your immune system after being exposed again.
But with the politically charged nature of Covid-19 conversation, I decided just to measure our antibody levels regularly and report it here to see just how long the antibodies stayed around.
Since my last update in October, there has been more research comparing natural immunity with vaccine-mediated immunity including a CDC-funded study released last month by researchers at the CDC.
Published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, the study found that natural immunity provides 76 percent protection against Covid-19-associated hospitalizations during the surge of the Omicron variant. With the mRNA-based Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, a 39 percent protection was seen for those without a prior infection.
After getting our blood taken at LabCorp, which we’ve used every time except for the first measurement, we found that all of our antibody levels have dropped. Mine dropped 8%, my oldest son’s dropped 47%, and my youngest son’s dropped 32%. So, seven months after I last had Covid-19, I still have a strong antibody level. Stay tuned for our next test in a April or May!
My levels:
2022
February: 71.4 AU/mL
March: 213.9 U/mL (different lab and different units than February)
May: 205.1 U/mL
June: 5822 U/mL
July: 5478 U/mL
August: 4030 U/mL
October: 2885 U/mL
2023
February: 2635 U/mL
My youngest son's levels:
2022
February: 56.8 AU/mL
March: 133.9 U/mL (different lab and different units than February)
May: 142.3 U/mL
June: 7525 U/mL
July: 3887 U/mL
August: 2315 U/mL
October: 1239 U/mL
2023
February: 837 U/mL
My oldest son's levels:
2022
February: 82.2 AU/mL
March: no test
May: 725 U/mL, diluted (different lab and different units than February)
June: 728 U/mL
July: 807 U/mL
August: 6150 U/mL
October: 3826 U/mL
2023
February: 2365 U/mL
9 Comment
Again, my boys and I got Covid early on and therefore had natural immunity so we did not get the vaccine. Natural immunity is consistently superior to vaccine-mediated immunity in any disease.
SABINA, my test cost $70 with insurance. In terms of memory T-cells, those are very hard to detect. There is a regular T-cell test that came out in 2022, however, I don’t know much about it as it’s new.
I’m old school. As with all five of my children, if they didn’t have a fever, they went to school. If they did have a fever, they stayed home until they were without a fever for 24 hours. I don’t care what virus it was, that’s the way I always handled sickness with my children.
Thanks for your info. :)
Tim – I hear you. However, if that was their intention, why was the policy structured so that children who were in that same situation, but had been vaccinated, did not have to quarantine? My point in raising the story was to show how public policy set by bureaucrats does not follow the science.
Lord that is impressive, solid, and reassuring! Thank you for this. I am printing it for friends! I have never vaccinated but did have “long Covid” in January 2022. When others know this they assume I am unprotected. Wish I had done what you have in documenting evidence to the contrary and documented as well by others as well. We just don’t see this in the news much do we? Sherie