Mary Wilson
Well-known member
Published: June 05, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(23)00289-X
Edward J Carr †, Mary Y Wu †, Joshua Gahir, Ruth Harvey, Hermaleigh Townsley, Chris Bailey, et al.
The global COVID-19 landscape is increasingly complex; emerging new variants rapidly cause waves of infection in people with variably induced immunity. Most individuals now have so-called hybrid immunity from both infection and vaccination. However, sequential infecting variants, induction of immunity, and subsequent waning are interlinked, and immune protection against new variants is unclear.
In the UK, the Living with COVID-19 strategy is based on the assumption that high population hybrid immunity will continue to blunt the severity and duration of COVID-19 waves. What happened in Singapore in late 2022 suggests that this might be a fragile assumption. Omicron subvariant XBB caused more than 45 000 cases, including more than 36 000 primary infections, despite vaccination rates of more than 90%; admissions and deaths rose marginally.[SUP]1[/SUP][SUP], [/SUP][SUP]2[/SUP] One study on reinfection cases in Singapore in The Lancet Infectious Diseases reported that hybrid immunity from vaccination and infection with pre-omicron variants did not confer protection against XBB reinfection.
[SUP]1[/SUP] Although it is tempting to assign causation to immune memory,[SUP]3[/SUP] this observation is underpinned by marked population heterogeneity including: differing early infection exposure, waning, or antigenic distance between inducing and re-challenge variants. ...
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(23)00289-X/fulltext
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(23)00289-X
Edward J Carr †, Mary Y Wu †, Joshua Gahir, Ruth Harvey, Hermaleigh Townsley, Chris Bailey, et al.
The global COVID-19 landscape is increasingly complex; emerging new variants rapidly cause waves of infection in people with variably induced immunity. Most individuals now have so-called hybrid immunity from both infection and vaccination. However, sequential infecting variants, induction of immunity, and subsequent waning are interlinked, and immune protection against new variants is unclear.
In the UK, the Living with COVID-19 strategy is based on the assumption that high population hybrid immunity will continue to blunt the severity and duration of COVID-19 waves. What happened in Singapore in late 2022 suggests that this might be a fragile assumption. Omicron subvariant XBB caused more than 45 000 cases, including more than 36 000 primary infections, despite vaccination rates of more than 90%; admissions and deaths rose marginally.[SUP]1[/SUP][SUP], [/SUP][SUP]2[/SUP] One study on reinfection cases in Singapore in The Lancet Infectious Diseases reported that hybrid immunity from vaccination and infection with pre-omicron variants did not confer protection against XBB reinfection.
[SUP]1[/SUP] Although it is tempting to assign causation to immune memory,[SUP]3[/SUP] this observation is underpinned by marked population heterogeneity including: differing early infection exposure, waning, or antigenic distance between inducing and re-challenge variants. ...
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(23)00289-X/fulltext