Differences in immunity against corona

Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself against infection with viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. Vaccination generates immunological memory that neutralizes the pathogen before it can make you very sick. Of course, if you have been infected, you also generate immunological memory, reducing the need of vaccination. However, which immunological memory is better, the one generated by infection or by vaccination?

In our study published in Cell Reports, our team has investigated this question. We isolated blood from patients who were only infected, only vaccinated, or both infected and vaccinated. Next, we compared the potency of immunological memory cells directed against SARS-CoV-2. We found that 'natural' memory (memory formed by infection) has a wider scope, meaning that it can recognize more viral variants. However, vaccination-induced memory was more potent and induced a stronger response against reinfection. When people were both infected and vaccinated, both scope and potency of memory cells was biggest.

Read our manuscript in full here: Vaccination provides superior in vivo recall capacity of SARS-CoV-2-specific memory CD8 T cells