In our coronaviruses vocabulary, immunity has become a complicated word.
The "breakthrough" infections surprised a small portion of the population and showed us that our protection isn't always variant-proof.
There may be a silver lining for people who got COVID after beingvaccinated, because they seem to be very well protected against future infections.
The researchers behind one recent study at Oregon Health and Science University, conducted during the Delta wave, described this double-duty protection "superimmunity", a finding reinforced by recent CDC data suggesting people with both a vaccine and a prior infection were the least likely to contract COVID-19 with
Early research out of Austria suggests that the same may be true for people who got COVID in recent weeks.
A new type of immunity doesn't mean the end of COVID-19. Some people are more protected than others in this patchwork epidemic. At any time, another variant could emerge. The worry for public health experts is that a COVID-19 infection is unpredictable.
"You wouldn't be crazy to try to get it," said Dr. Robert Murphy of the Feinberg School of Medicine.
If you get a vaccine, you'll have a foundation for immunity.
Superimmunity doesn't work without the foundation of vaccination in place, and natural infections alone aren't going to deliver anything beyond normal immunity, high medical bills, and the risks of severe sickness and long COVID.
People who received a vaccine during the Delta wave produced up to 1,000% more antibodies than people who received a second vaccine.
Fikadu Tafesse, a co-author of the Oregon study, told Insider that the ability to cross-neutralize different variant is remarkably high.
By exposing your immune system to multiple versions of the same virus, you're showing your body the many forms the coronaviruses can take on.
Tafesse said that the vaccines were designed with the original strain in mind. It gives you an additional level of complexity.
The immune system is affected by natural infections.
Your T cells and B cells were working hard while you were tired. The immune warriors are responsible for attacking cells. The result is a better-trained defense plan for the next time your body encounters a disease.
Tafesse told Insider that the immunity we get from the vaccine is mostly spike protein.
The vaccines use the spike protein to make us immune. Omicron has shown that an immune response specific to a singleprotein won't always keep people from getting COVID-19.
It will take some time to track Omicron immunity.
Tafesse was optimistic despite the fact that the researchers haven't yet gathered the data to understand how superimmunity holds up against Omicron.
"We think that individuals with breakthrough will have high levels of protection, even from Omicron," he said, laughing. "Now that it's superimmunity, what is the next one?"
The World Economic Forum put on a panel with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said the questions of whether Omicron would bring the epidemic to an end are difficult to answer.
Tafesse was asked if COVID-19 would become endemic after Omicron. If we don't get another variant that ignores the immune response of the prior variant, that would be the case.
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