Tag Archives: immunity

nednapa/Shutterstock Rebecca Aicheler, Cardiff Metropolitan University Until recently, the UK government limited a fourth dose of the COVID vaccine to people with severely weakened immune systems over the age of 16. But, following a resurgence of COVID cases in the UK, the government has followed some other countries such as Israel, Germany and Sweden, and expanded the eligibility for a …

Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock Grace C Roberts, University of Leeds and Lena Glaser, Queen’s University Belfast When we’re exposed to a pathogen such as a virus, our immune system identifies it as a foreign invader and mounts an attack. This ultimately results in the formation of antibodies which can neutralise the invading pathogen next time we encounter it. It’s a complex process. …

Understanding how much protection a vaccine offers is not as simple as it sounds. Andriy Onufriyenko/Moment via Getty Images Melissa Hawkins, American University The pandemic has brought many tricky terms and ideas from epidemiology into everyone’s lives. Two particularly complicated concepts are vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. These are not the same thing. And as time goes on and new variants …

Vaccination produces a much stronger and more consistent immune response than infection. Andriy Onufriyenko/Moment via Getty Images Jennifer T. Grier, University of South Carolina A few weeks ago, a message popped up in the corner of my screen. “What do you think about people who have recently had COVID–19 getting the vaccine?” A friend of mine was eligible for a …

Our research could be important for developing more effective vaccines in the future. Arturs Budkevics/ Shutterstock Louisa James, Queen Mary University of London and Hamish King, Queen Mary University of London We understand much of how the immune system works but, as recent efforts to combat COVID-19 have shown, its sheer complexity means many mysteries still remain. For example, how …

Shutterstock / Lightspring Sara Lumbreras, Universidad Pontificia Comillas and Mario Castro Ponce, Universidad Pontificia Comillas Para detener la pandemia solo hace falta una cosa: que durante la ventana de tiempo en la que un infectado puede transmitir la enfermedad a otras personas, no lo haga. Sobre el papel, esta medida es sencilla; en el mundo real, es extremadamente compleja de …