Vaccine Breakthrough Could Finally Bring COVID to Its Knees

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32. Protection against *infection* wanes, but not against severe illness.

To me, the really interesting thing about the study mentioned in the OP is this part:

The key to the NIH’s potential vaccine design is a part of the virus called the “spine helix.” It’s a coil-shaped structure inside the spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it grab onto and infect our cells.

Lots of current vaccines target the spike protein. But none of them specifically target the spine helix. And yet, there are good reasons to focus on that part of the pathogen. Whereas many regions of the spike protein tend to change a lot as the virus mutates, the spine helix doesn’t.

That gives scientists “hope that an antibody targeting this region will be more durable and broadly effective,” Joshua Tan, the lead scientist on the NIH team, told The Daily Beast.

The notion of vaccines' "waning effectiveness" is nuanced, as the information below demonstrates:

Pfizer booster spurs immune response to new omicron subtypes (Nov. 18, 2022)
- https://apnews.com/article/science-health-business-covid-a5ef750ba44ad4ee653122bcf0f311f3

Study: COVID booster effectiveness wanes but remains strong (Feb. 11, 2022)
- https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-30dab750829aef1a7fc811650210a34f

The Osterholm Update podcast, Episode 117, Nov. 10, 2022:
- https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/ep-117-transcript-2
- Excerpt from podcast, assessment by host Dr. Michael Osterholm of the Univ. of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy:

To understand the whole picture, I want to take a step back and remind us what boosters in general, not just the newest bivalent versions are able to offer. The primary series of vaccination is typically responsible for helping our bodies produce a T cell response that protects us from severe disease and death. We've talked about that, and some of us have experienced how immunity from that primary series wanes over time, resulting in breakthrough infections.

According to a recent study in Science Immunology, our COVID-19 booster doses do not appear to further expand T cell response. However, they do specifically boost antibodies that act specifically against the spike protein. Without diving too deeply into the science of immunology, boosters are playing a very important role overall in keeping our immune system up to date, especially against severe disease.

Now, to improve on the positive effects of the original formulation of these boosters, the bivalent boosters are now proving to be even more effective...Pfizer released additional clinical data this week. In addition, there have been five preprint studies looking at the impact of bivalent boosters in comparison with the original mRNA vaccine formulations. There were some differences across the studies' methodology. However, all six of these studies show that the bivalent booster is at least equally as effective as the original formulation. Four out of the six studies showed a significant increase in the production of neutralizing antibodies against the BA.5 variant compared to the original formulation. In the three studies that compared the bivalent booster to one of our latest variants taking hold in the US, BQ.1.1, the bivalent booster proved more effective than the original formulation.

The one study that assessed effectiveness against BA.2.75.2 a variant we've seen taking off in other areas of the world has also shown to be very promising. Data from the live virus studies show an immune response that was 3 to 4 fold higher than the original formulation. Significant results that make the latest formulation worth celebrating.

Now, again, I want to emphasize one more time that these data are early in terms of the time period from vaccination to assessment. I want to know what they look like, not at 30 days, but at 60 days, 180 days, 365 days. That will be very, very important.

- more at link: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/podcasts-webinars/episode-117

Note: I am not an immunologist, a virologist, or any kind of medical professional. All I know is what I've learned from experts in these fields.