Experts reveal best defense against COVID-19 variants Delta and Omicron

By Joe Morgan via SWNS

The best defense against new COVID-19 variants is to have had the virus and been double jabbed, according to a new study.

People who have both tested positive for COVID-19 and been double-vaxxed have "high quality" antibodies that can fend off new and emerging strains of the virus.

But the study discovered that people who tested positive early on in the pandemic, before new variants were identified, have less protection than someone who may have been infected after May 2020.

Researchers say the pandemic continues because new variants are evolving which helps the virus to spread more easily from person to person.

Like with the Omicron variant, breakthrough infections in people who are fully vaccinated are likely to occur.

With other variants, like Delta, vaccines have remained effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations and death

In a study, researchers compared different levels of antibodies in varying participants who had different experiences with COVID-19.

In uninfected patients who had received one of two COVID-19 vaccines, the researchers found antibodies that were less effective against mutations in the new variants (like Beta or Gamma).

Similarly, researchers found people who had been infected with coronavirus before variants were identified, May 2020, had reduced potency against newer variants compared to the original.

These findings suggest that both mild infection and vaccination produce antibodies that still leave a person vulnerable to new variants.

But the results differed dramatically for individuals who’d been infected before May 2020 and, a year later, been vaccinated. Similarly, those who were infected after May 2020 and vaccinated twice.

Dr. Otto Yang, at the University of California Los Angeles, said: “We might have predicted that antibodies would continue to evolve and get better with multiple exposures, but we didn’t expect it to happen that fast.”

"The study shows that antibody quality can improve over time, and not just quantity.

"Finding the optimal mix of antibodies could help guide future preventive efforts.

"It fits into understanding what the optimal vaccination regimen is."

The study was published in the journal mBio.