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How long is the immunity of someone who has overcome the coronavirus?

2021-06-22T18:29:26.992Z


This week, Dr. Huerta talks about the study that indicates that the immunity of a person who went through the coronavirus can last a year.


When is immunity achieved after the covid-19 vaccine?

1:06

(CNN Spanish) -

Starting this week, in our podcast “Coronavirus: Reality vs.

fiction ”, Dr. Elmer Huerta will offer on Fridays a summary of the most outstanding news of the week on covid-19.

This week, we talk about the delta variant, first detected in India, and how it is now called of concern in the United States.

Also, the doctor analyzes the news about the Novavax and CureVac vaccines against covid-19.

You can listen to this episode on Spotify or your favorite podcast platform or read the transcript below.

Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your daily dose of information about the new coronavirus.

Information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.

Today we will see some news about the pandemic that have occurred during the week of June 14 to 18.

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The delta variant of the new coronavirus, of concern in the United States.

The week began with an intense conversation about the delta variant that, as we heard in the episode of May 12, was initially discovered in India and quickly spread to more than 80 countries, including several in Latin America, and that on 15 June was reclassified by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from a variant of interest to a variant of concern.

As we also heard in the episode of May 12, the variants of concern are those in which, among other things, they present evidence of a greater contagion capacity, produce a more severe disease (for example, increased hospitalizations or deaths) , and are less neutralized by antibodies generated during a natural infection or previous vaccination.

Variations of concern require strong public health actions, such as notification to WHO and CDC, local or regional efforts to control the spread, and development of new vaccines or diagnostic tests.

In the week that we wrote this episode, the delta variant is responsible for more than 90% of COVID-19 cases in the UK, and, as of June 13, for 10.3% of cases in the US.

The delta variant, more contagious

The main characteristic of the delta variant is that it is 40 to 60% more contagious than the alpha variant, initially discovered in the UK.

As the latter - the alpha variant - is 40% more contagious than the original version of the new coronavirus, we can deduce that the delta variant is twice as contagious as the original variant.

Regarding the type of disease that the delta variant causes, an article in The New York Times cites intensive care specialists from Guangzhou province, China, who have observed that up to 12% of patients infected with the delta variant they become seriously or critically ill within three to four days of symptoms onset.

As a comparison, last year, and with the original variant, the proportion of patients who worsened in the first days of the disease was only 2% or 3% although, occasionally, it reached 10%.

On the other hand, a study published online by Scottish researchers in The Lancet, on June 14, has revealed that people infected with this variant are almost twice as likely to be hospitalized as those infected with the alpha variant, initially discovered in the United Kingdom.

The study failed to analyze the complications or mortality of affected patients.

Britain postpones its easing

In other news related to the delta variant, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson postponed for a month the relaxation of restrictive measures to control the pandemic in the country, which was scheduled to start on Monday, June 21.

This is due to the concern caused by the unusual increase in cases and hospitalizations caused by the delta variant.

The good news related to the delta variant is that it is capable of being neutralized by some vaccines.

For example, in the study mentioned above, published in The Lancet, it was found that a single dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine only gave 33% protection against the delta variant, but after the second dose the protection went up to a 79%, which is slightly less than the 92% protection given by the same vaccine against the alpha variant.

For its part, another study by the UK public health agency found that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine appeared to be 96% effective in preventing hospitalization.

In summary, the key to controlling the delta variant lies in mass vaccination of the population.

Novavax and Curevac vaccines against covid-19

This week, there were two vaccine news stories, one good and one bad.

The good news is that, in a press release, the Novavax company announced that the phase 3 study of its vaccine, conducted in almost 30,000 volunteers in Mexico and the United States, had achieved a 90.4% efficacy in preventing the disease. symptomatic.

The Novavax vaccine

The interesting thing about this Novavax vaccine is that it uses a completely different platform than all the vaccines in use in the world so far.

The vaccine technology has the complicated name of "recombinant nanoparticle technology" and uses a stimulant of the defense system called Matrix-M, which has its origin in an extract from the bark of a tree that grows in Chile called quillay.

The recombinant nanoparticle technology used in the Novavax vaccine is the same technology used in the hepatitis B vaccine, the human papillomavirus (HPV), and some flu vaccines.

It begins by isolating the gene for the new coronavirus, which encodes the spike protein, a gene that is introduced into a virus called a virus wand, and it is allowed to infect moth cells, which - following the gene's instructions - they begin to produce spike proteins, which are isolated, and grouped into nanoparticles.

The vaccine is then prepared with the nanoparticles, containing the proteins from the virus spikes, mixed with the resin derived from the quillay tree.

Scientific publications are expected to prove the company's claims, but in the meantime Novavax has announced that it plans to apply to the Food and Drug Administration - the FDA, for its acronym in English - for authorization of emergency use of its vaccine in the third quarter of this year and is on track to make about 100 million doses per month, by the end of the third quarter.

The CureVac Vaccine

The bad news comes from Germany, where the CureVac vaccine, which uses the same messenger RNA technology from Pfizer and Moderna, announced that the interim analysis of its phase 3 studies has been disappointing, reaching only 47% efficacy in preventing disease, which is less than the 50% WHO requires for any vaccine to be acceptable.

It is striking that a vaccine using the same successful technology as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines has had such disappointing results.

It is possible that some details in the preparation of the vaccine can explain this difference.

Post-coronavirus immunity

This week good news is published related to the duration of immunity after suffering covid-19.

In the journal Nature, of June 14, it is reported that in a group of 63 people convalescing from covid-19 the production of neutralizing antibodies and memory cells against SARS CoV2 were present one year after the onset of the disease.

Interestingly, among the 26 vaccinated people in the group, an increase was found in the production of neutralizing antibodies against the SARS Cov2 variants of interest.

Undoubtedly, this study gives hope that the immunity of a person who has had the disease can last at least a year, and further studies must be awaited to know if it can be greater than that time.

The United States exceeds 600,000 deaths from coronavirus

This week, it was also reported that the death toll caused by COVID-19 in the United States had reached 600,000, which means that approximately one in every 550 people in the United States has died from the virus.

Recall that the first death from covid-19 was registered on February 29, 2020, although subsequent studies showed that two deaths, which occurred in California before that date, were due to covid-19.

While it is true that both new cases and deaths have been progressively decreasing in the United States, the threat of the delta variant remains active and in a briefing on covid-19 at the White House last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the delta variant was circulating in the United States at a rate similar to that seen in the United Kingdom, where that variant is now dominant. and encouraged everyone to get vaccinated against covid-19.

The study on the consequences of covid-19

In another news of the week, on June 15, the non-profit organization FAIR publishes one of the largest follow-up studies that have been done to date to find out the type of symptoms that occur after suffering covid-19 .

The health insurance data of almost 2 million people who overcome COVID-19 were analyzed and it was found that 23% consulted with their doctor a month or more after having passed the disease.

What is striking about the study is that even people who had asymptomatic infections developed post-covid-19 symptoms.

The most frequent symptom –which occurred in more than 5% of people– was muscle and nerve pain, followed by respiratory problems in 3.5% of cases.

The researchers were surprised that 3% of people developed elevated blood cholesterol levels and 2.4% developed elevated blood pressure, which opens up the possibility that the new coronavirus causes metabolic problems not yet well understood.

Undoubtedly, as we saw in the March 11 episode, this issue of the aftermath of covid-19, especially in asymptomatic people, opens a new chapter in the recovery period from the pandemic.

It is possible, some experts say, that health services are overwhelmed by the high number of patients seeking medical services.

Not only all the patients with various common ailments who were left unattended due to the pandemic, but also the millions of people who need consultations for the aftermath of the disease.

Another variant is discovered in Latin America

Finally, on June 14, the WHO designated the C37 variant, originally discovered in Peru, as the Lambda variety, and classified it as a variety of interest.

This means that it must be watched closely to determine how easy it is to spread, whether it causes more serious disease, response to treatments, and whether current vaccines offer protection.

Do you have questions about the coronavirus?

Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes.

You can find me at @DrHuerta.

If you think this podcast is useful, help others find it by rating and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app.

Make sure to subscribe to get the latest episode on your account.

And for the most up-to-date information you can always head to CNNEspanol.com.

Thanks for your attention.

If you have any questions you can send them to Dr. Elmer Huerta through Twitter.

You can also head over to CNNE.com/coronaviruspodcast for all episodes of our “Coronavirus: Reality vs. Reality” podcast.

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Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-06-22

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