Antibodies from Previous COVID-19 Infection Last over a Year, Study Shows

According to a new peer-reviewed study, a majority of people previously infected with COVID-19 developed long-lasting antibodies that can last longer than a year.

On Sept. 24, The European Model of Immunology accepted a study from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, who studied 1,292 subjects eight months after being infected with the coronavirus, testing for the presence of antibodies.

According to their findings, 96 percent of subjects still carried neutralizing antibodies and 66 percent had the nucleoprotein Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody. As reported by CBN News, the IgG antibody helps the immune system remember how to fight infections such as COVID-19.

The Finnish scientists also randomly selected 367 subjects from the original study group who remained unvaccinated for a year post-infection, Just The News reports. They found that 89 percent of subjects still had neutralizing antibodies and 36 percent with the IgG antibody.

Additionally, subjects who had severe COVID possessed higher antibody levels, ranging from two to seven times as many antibodies as those with mild infections at least 13 months after contracting the virus.

While neutralizing antibodies granted long-term protection against the original COVID-19 virus, their effectiveness against the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants waned after some time.

Nevertheless, the study noted that the neutralizing antibodies “were only slightly reduced” in the Alpha variant and “considerably declined” in the Beta variant. Moreover, “over 80 percent of the subjects who had recovered from severe” COVID-19 still held neutralizing antibodies against the Delta variant a year after infection.

Additional studies confirm the efficacy of immunity against the coronavirus.

According to an Israeli study published in August, natural immunity from previous COVID infection showed longer lasting protection against the Delta variant than from the two doses of the Pfizer shot.

The research showed that people who were fully vaccinated had a six-fold increased risk of breakthrough infection from the Delta variant than from unvaccinated people who were previously infected. Additionally, there was also significant increased risk for symptomatic disease.

Another study published in the journal Cell in July found that most recovered COVID-19 patients exhibited durable antibodies B cells, and T cells against the coronavirus for up to 250 days. 

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Simon Lehmann

Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. He is also the co-hosts of the For Your Soul podcast, which seeks to equip the church with biblical truth and sound doctrine. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.

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