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New findings in a study published this week showed that both COVID-19 vaccines have shown a “persistent” immune response to the virus that could potentially last years.
The last looming question is how effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus, specifically the more transmissible Delta strain that has become dominant in the US and is present in 49 states.
"We remain committed to studying emerging variants, generating data, and sharing it as it becomes available,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. “These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants.”
According to the newly released research, months after receiving their first dose of the vaccine, test subjects “still had so-called germinal centers” that were “churning out immune cells” directed against COVID-19.
“Germinal centers are where our immune memories are formed. And the longer we have a germinal center, the stronger and more durable our immunity will be because there’s a fierce selection process happening there, and only the best immune cells survive,” senior author Ali Ellebedy, an associate professor of pathology and immunology, of medicine and of molecular microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said.
“We found that germinal centers were still going strong 15 weeks after the vaccine’s first dose. We’re still monitoring the germinal centers, and they’re not declining; in some people, they’re still ongoing. This is truly remarkable.”
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