COVID Is Going Up Again? Why Don't People Understand How This Works?

[Klaralven]

12. I have heard of the mutants

Suppose that efficacy for vaccines is 95% and efficacy for recovered Wuhan type patients is 99%.

Now the vaccines produce antibodies against a part of the spike protein (Pfizer and Moderna) or a larger part of the virus (Janssen). On the other hand, patents recovered from Wuhan type Covid produce a wider variety of antibodies and a fuller immune system response. This is one of the ways that researchers can distinguish between the antibody response of people who have been vaccinated versus had the disease.

Therefore, it is likely that if hypothetically, the efficacy against South African is 60% for the vaccines, the efficacy of having recovered from Wuhan is higher, suppose 80%.

Consequently, herd immunity against the South African variant (or any other variant) is probably better and more quickly achieved by having a higher proportion of recovered patients.