Vaccines or infections generate antibodies and cellular immunity, or B and T cells. Both are essential to the COVID vaccine and booster response. MedTwitter
DisclosuresOn August 31, 2022, the FDA provided emergency use authorization for two bivalent booster vaccines. Both mRNA vaccines have the genetic code for the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain but also include updated mRNA code for a shared component of BA4 and BA5, the latter being the most prevalent Omicron subvariant circulating in the United States.
It is exciting that new COVID-19 boosters are here. However, to explain what we know about the bivalent booster in humans to date, we have to get into a short primer on immunology, including antibodies, B cells, and T cells. Antibodies are one arm of the immune system that are generated by infection or vaccines, but antibodies wane with time — otherwise our blood would be thick as paste with them from all the vaccines or infections we've seen. Think of antibodies as more protective against mild COVID-19 infection.
Luckily, vaccines or infections also generate something called cellular immunity , which is much longer lasting and protects