MRNA vaccines may offer protection for years

Islam News – The vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna set off a persistent immune reaction that may protect against the coronavirus without the need for a booster shot, scientists reported on Monday.

It’s unclear exactly how long immunity lasts for people who receive vaccines that use mRNA technology, but it could be for years, if not for a lifetime — especially for people who were infected with the coronavirus and later vaccinated.

“It’s a good sign for how durable our immunity is from this vaccine,” said Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature. The study did not consider the Johnson & Johnson shot, which is made with a different technology.

Caveats: The protection is most reliable if the virus and its variants do not evolve much beyond their current forms — which is by no means guaranteed. And older adults and people with immunodeficiencies may still need boosters.

Source: The New York Times