According to a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on Wednesday, you can significantly lower the antibodies of Covid-19 against a previous infection.
“The results of the study are basically a tenfold reduction, but I want to reserve against it. In other words, it can be an overestimation of the reduction, it can be an underestimation of the reduction,” said Dr. , chief deputy director of the National Cancer Institute, who was an author of the study.
“For me, the big message is: there is a reduction,” he said. “The most important takeaway is that being antibody positive after natural infection is accompanied by partial protection against a new infection.”
How they did the study: The researchers examined data on more than 3.2 million people in the United States who completed an antibody test between January and August last year.
Among those tested, 11.6% tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies and 88.3% negative.
- 0.3% of those with antibodies tested positive for Covid-19 infection later than 90 days.
- 3% of those without antibodies tested positive for reinfection during the same period.
But more research is needed to determine a causal link, how long protection against antibodies can last and the risk of reinfection against a variant.