https://www.cell.com/immunity/fulltext/S1074-7613(20)30445-3 Says those infected retain effective antibodies for 5-7 months.
https://news.wttw.com/2021/07/01/how-long-does-covid-19-immunity-last Says vaccine should last at least 6 months, but that its unknown beyond that. However there is a study underway to find out.
My question was based on the above being true, and that the covid variants would continue to show up. As in Delta plus and now Lamda. A variant that is the dominant variant in Peru. As of last week I believe there are 8 cases of Lamda in the UK.
Early non peer reviewed research says the mRNA vaccines will protect against Lamda. But in another pre print paper Lamda was found to have mutations that allowed it to escape antibodies created by CoronaVac.
One of the mutations in Lamda is T859N, which is found in the IOTA variant that is currently making the rounds in New York which has the E484K spike mutation that may help the virus avoid antibodies. It also has S477N mutation that may allow the virus to bond more tightly with human cells. And thats just one variant. In the UK, wiki says we have 8 being monitored with 4 being labelled as variants of concern. You look to Europe and they are looking at 30 variants. 4 of concern, 9 of interest and the rest monitoring.
Now I dont know what a lot of this means, because Im 5
, but you can see why I would ask how herd immunity is going to work with a short immune window and a virus that is mutating relatively quickly. And seemingly towards being vaccine resistant.