They don’t know. As time marches on they can continue to test to see how long people who had covid and people who were vaccinated still have antibodies.

Your article says 6 months, well, yeah, people started getting sick in March here so our data is for people who became sick 7 ish months ago or less at the time of your article. Data from China, Italy, Iran, could provide close to a year.

Vaccinated people we only have data from when they started vaccinating people. The initial trials, phase 1, are in completely healthy patients and might have been a different does than the final recommendation.

I’m not a doctor, but my gut feeling is the immunity lasts for many years. Let’s see if I wind up right I could easily be wrong.

There are people who have caught covid twice, but there are people who get chicken pox twice (very rare usually happens when first case was in infancy) and other examples of immune systems not doing what is the norm in the population.

Keep in mind the Moderna vaccine is a new type of vaccine so that makes it even harder to know if our immune systems will remember what to do over time.

Seems I’ve heard they last less than one year. It’s why they’re considering giving a vaccination once a year like the fly vaccine.

I didn’t read anything but the headline/blurb but saw somewhere that Tom Hanks, one of the first big names to have the virus, was told he still had antibodies from his recovery from infection. I don’t know that this has anything to do with how long lasting the vaccine will be but since his wife, infected at the same time, also has antibodies left, maybe of some significance. Or, not.

Well my pharmacist said 3 months. This makes no sense

@JLeslie I am not a doctor, but I would think that the body, which is designed fairly smartly, would not keep much of an inventory of anything. However, it would store away the blueprints in case the antibody is ever needed again.

@Dutchess_III I saw a researcher months ago saying the reports have been interpreted incorrectly by the media. It’s not 3 months, but rather at 3 months people still had immunity. Somehow that started the gossip that you’re immune only 3 months.

@crazyguy You would think, although immunity does wane for some things more than others. That’s why we get boosters, but some people who get boosters don’t really need it. My last tetanus shot was 25 years ago and I’m still immune, although my number is lower than 5 years ago. At the same time I get shingles over and over again since my 20’s. You never know.

@JLeslie I have had shingles once. My God, it was painful. I hope you and I never get it again.

If the only way to measure a person’s immunity is by measuring his/her level of antibodies, we may indeed have limited immunity. However, if they can find the genetic blueprint for antibodies in the body (probably in the T cells), we may never need a booster.

@crazyguy Like I said I get shingles over and over again since my 20’s. I know a few people like me. Mind is more itchy than painful, but very uncomfortable. Luckily, not very large areas, but several years ago I had it on my face for the first time, which is troubling.

Generally, medical science doesn’t believe you can over vaccinate, but there are cases of bad reactions to some vaccines when boosters are given too close together. Anyway, that’s why doctors rarely test immunity and just shoot you up instead. The vaccine is often much cheaper than the titer test also.

I would much rather not take any more dugs than I have to. However, some tests are more invasive than the actual drug.

@crazyguy Well, you can get a tetanus titer when you are getting other bloodwork done. That’s the only booster most people get regularly. Pertussis isn’t a bad thing to get a booster for also, supposedly the title test isn’t very accurate for pertussis unless that changed.

I don’t get the shingles vaccine, because I figure if having shingles doesn’t boost my immunity what’s the chances the vaccine will, although the new vaccine is supposedly much more effective than the old one. I’d be interested to know how effective the vaccine is in people like me who get shingles repeatedly. As far as I know there are no studies on that.

@JLeslie Having had shingles once before, I realize how unpleasant the disease is. Theoretically, covid-19 is worse because you are isolated and may have problems breathing and may die. But my memory of shingles is bad – I sure would not want to risk getting it again. Fortunately, I think my immune system is still strong. And I probably will not catch it again.

However, after reading your post, I did a little digging into Shingrix, which is the first (and, I believe, the only) vaccine approved for shingles. I am with Kaiser and intend to ask my doctor about it. The common side effects from the vaccine seem trivial compared to the disease. So I plan to take it.

@crazyguy Zostavax is the existing vaccine for shingles. Shingrix is the new one.

I think, but check me, they are both Glaxo, and so my guess is they revised it to get another patent, which means they probably kept it from the public for years when they already knew how to make it better. Part of the scamming done all too often. The old one had an estimated efficacy of 50%. The new one is over 90%. I’d be interested to know the actual difference in the vaccine if there is one. Maybe it’s just the dosage.

If you find research that people who have recurring shingles have success with the vaccine I’d be interested. Even someone who has one event in the past would be interesting to me.

You should have immunity for life like you do with any other virus. That is the part I don’t understand.

From October 2020 – - – Healthline

Article about length of immunity and memory cells in the body. Could be only 5–7 months or it could be years.

According to this thread the length of time for immunity is still unknown. On a different thread, it was stated that it is now believed that we don’t pass on this virus for about 3 months after being infected but that number is not set in stone. There’s no way to know how log the vaccine will last until we have some real life experience from which to draw some actual experience

@JLeslie Thanks for the info. I found Shingrix and there was no mention of its predecessor, so I assumed.

I googled Zostovax vs Shingrix and read the very first link. Fortunately it had the right info. Shingrix is much more efficacious than its predecessor (numbers quoted for those older than 50 are 97% vs 50–64%). Of course the increase in efficacy comes at the price of extra side effects and the need for two shots instead of one. See

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/new-shingles-vaccine-shingrix-zostavax/

As far as vaccinating for somebody who has had shingles multiple times, here is an article I found:

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/shingles/shingles-come-back#1

I do not know if any of the study subjects included recurring cases. In any event, if I were you, I would take Shingrix because its side effects seem to be tolerable.

@SEKA I believe (Caravanfan, please feel free to correct me) that immunity predictions are based on detected levels of antibodies in a person’s blood. They do not make any allowances for the possible knowledge stored in T cells and the like.

@crazyguy Several years ago I asked our Infectious Disease doctor jelly who no longer comes here unfortunately. He was great to have in the collective. Thankfully @Carvanfan still tolerates us so we can benefit from his experience and expertise.

There is a theory that since we vaccinate children for chicken pox in the US, we are not naturally giving adults boosters that they used to get by being around children with chicken pox. Some scientists feel this helped protect adults against shingles. This is one of the reasons the UK gives for not vaccinating for chicken pox, but there are people in the UK who want to see the government make it part of the vaccination program for children. Possibly, they have by now? Last I looked into it was a few years ago.

Anyway, the ID doctor basically agreed with my logic that the vaccine had a good chance of not helping me, but also was not aware of any studies. I get “boosts” over and over again, and yet I still get it over and over again since I have shingles over and over again. The medical establishment is unaware of how often these reoccurrences happen, because most of us don’t tell our doctors every time they happen. We have a stash of medicine, or don’t medicate depending. The stash is not some sort of under cover stash, the doctors prescribe so we have the stash. I have a script sitting in the pharmacy now that I have not filled, but I might before the time is up. I haven’t needed it thankfully.

@JLeslie Just how many times have you had shingles?

Maybe 12 or 15. I don’t keep count.

@JLeslie Wow!

@crazyguy Like I said, mine is not very severe, but the last time it was on my face, which is troubling. More people like me than you would think.