Page 2 | Natural Immunity and children

Abraxan · 18/09/2021 15:57

@2boysand1princess

But I know someone who caught covid twice? 11 months apart. Both times not moderate, but how is that natural immunity then as the antibodies gained form the first infection, obviously didn’t stop him catching it second time?

To be fair having 'winter cold' symptoms would be mild covid.

Mine was written in hospital noted as 'moderate.' I was hospitalised due to potentially dangerous complications , but did not need oxygen which would then start to move towards severe.

JS87 · 18/09/2021 16:16

Also sometimes your immune system fighting something off effectively can give cold symptoms without it being a troublesome infection. People felt pretty poorly after their covid vaccine and they didn’t even have covid.

bumbleymummy · 18/09/2021 17:14

Catching covid naturaly doesn't even give immunity for 6 months. We have children of all ages catching it repeatedly within the same school year - and it seems to be worse the second or third round too

Your school may be a bit of an anomaly. Several studies show that immunity lasts for 9-12 months in the majority and reinfection is rare. More severe reinfection is even rarer (PHE)

SpringheelJack · 18/09/2021 19:02

Reinfection is very low though?

My understanding is that it won't be classed as reinfection unless they have retained the original sample. I can't remember where I read this, and I'm sure someone will gently and reasonably correct me if I'm wrong, but I definitely read somewhere that unless they have the original swab to compare and verify that it's a new infection and not traces of the previous one, then it won't be recorded as an official reinfection. So I'm not surprised numbers are low but I'd suggywe can't know the real numbers in those circumstances.

SpringheelJack · 18/09/2021 19:02

*suggest we

pontypridd · 18/09/2021 19:31

I agree OP.

You shouldn’t have to say you have your tin foil hat on. The fact you feel you do ... speaks volumes for the situation we are in.

Lelivre · 19/09/2021 08:36

OP. I think you are right to ask questions like this about the vaccine v wild infection. However I’ve seen in person how unpredictable this virus can be, before then I was fairly nonchalant about my kids becoming infected. Now I am keenly aware it a novel virus and still early days in our understanding of it.

Some people react badly to the vaccine and some react badly to the virus. The reasons are not fully understood and neither is the question of long term effects and immunity of either because both are novel. However with billions now vaccinated there is more data about how it’s effecting/protecting.

The problem now is you cannot avoid COVID and have to be ok with contracting it without any protection if choosing not to vaccinate, that’s for you to decide.

Younger children are not offered the vaccine so we will see what happens in due course, for now nobody knows…

pontypridd · 19/09/2021 09:23

But ... @Lelivre ...

Kids have been exposed to Covid and unvaccinated for 18 months now. How many have you heard of to be hospitalised or worse? There may have been some but the media hasn’t picked up on it which is unusual.

Why then are we being made to feel now that Covid is an extreme risk to children. It really isn’t.

Lelivre · 19/09/2021 11:57

Not really… this is the first wave that the kids have been in school with no mitigation’s. Also delta has been dominating only since early summer short weeks before kids started to go off on holiday. The proportion of kids who have had it in our area until now is tiny.

My issue is that we don’t know a lot about long term or short term serious reactions (to wild infection of delta) but I suppose we are about to find out.

I’m personally not OK about the current stats on long covid for kids, again it’s very limited. I’m not saying I’m OK about vaccination for young children.

It’s a difficult issue for parents and with a lot of unknowns.

wasthataburp · 23/09/2021 15:14

@2boysand1princess

Meant to write both times he had it moderately, like a winter cold.

So their immune system did their job and no big deal.

pontypridd · 23/09/2021 15:17

*It made me wonder if it would be in young people’s best interests not to be vaccinated, but to contract COVID while they are young and strong so that they develop life long immunity and to save the vaccines for the elderly and the vulnerable who will have no chance to contract Covid at a very low risk.

I’ve got my tin hat on.*

I wish you wouldn't feel the need to undermine your thoughts with I've got my tin hat on. That's such a nonsense phrase.

What you say makes perfect sense. If we vaccinate kids (and it works for them) we are putting off them having Covid until a later date. It is better for them to get it now whilst they are young. Getting it naturally will give them stronger and longer lasing immunity. Plus they are at far less risk of serious illness with Covid at a young age.

puppeteer · 23/09/2021 21:04

@pontypridd

*It made me wonder if it would be in young people’s best interests not to be vaccinated, but to contract COVID while they are young and strong so that they develop life long immunity and to save the vaccines for the elderly and the vulnerable who will have no chance to contract Covid at a very low risk.

I’ve got my tin hat on.*

I wish you wouldn't feel the need to undermine your thoughts with I've got my tin hat on. That's such a nonsense phrase.

What you say makes perfect sense. If we vaccinate kids (and it works for them) we are putting off them having Covid until a later date. It is better for them to get it now whilst they are young. Getting it naturally will give them stronger and longer lasing immunity. Plus they are at far less risk of serious illness with Covid at a young age.

I couldn't agree more.

I still believe it would have set us up much better if we could have exposed children, teenagers, and a decent slug of the younger population to covid back in the days of alpha.

You got your eyes dug out for daring to say it though!

But given everything that we've managed to do, I don't see that it was impossible.

ollyollyoxenfree · 23/09/2021 21:07

What you say makes perfect sense. If we vaccinate kids (and it works for them) we are putting off them having Covid until a later date. It is better for them to get it now whilst they are young. Getting it naturally will give them stronger and longer lasing immunity. Plus they are at far less risk of serious illness with Covid at a young age.

This isn't how immunity works though.

The situation isn't either have infection acquired immunity or have vaccine acquired immunity

Getting infected after being vaccinated will still provide a boost to the immune response, but without the risk of your immune system having to deal with it completely naive.

You won't end up with better immunity by avoiding being vaccinated, which seems to be the rationale being pushed on this thread.

Loustew12 · 23/09/2021 22:43

Not true. Immunity relies on T cells and B cells and not just antibodies.