2023-12-20 12:08:09
What is it like to get Covid-19 now?
I have been reflecting on this question since a friend was surprised by how badly he was hurt by the coronavirus. His third infection was significantly worse than the previous time he had it.
“I thought every time you got an illness it would be a little better each time,” he wrote from his sickbed.
That was certainly said a lot during the pandemic. But I also know co-workers and people I have interviewed or talked to outside the school who have been greatly affected by Covid in recent months.
A familiar story has been a week of cough, headaches or fever followed by persistent fatigue.
It is important to note that covid has always caused a wide range of symptoms. Even before vaccines, some lucky people barely got sick or developed symptoms.
For some of us, Covid is a sniff, not even enough to go looking in the bathroom cabinet to see if there’s a screening test hidden in there.
But scientists specializing in our immune system warn that Covid continues to cause unpleasant infections that can be worse than before and leave us lying down for weeks.
So what is going on?
How we cope following being exposed to Covid comes down to the battle between the virus itself and our body’s defenses.
The early stages are crucial as they dictate the extent to which the virus will gain a foothold in our body and how severe it will be.
However, declining immunity and the evolution of the virus are tipping the balance.
“I feel pretty bad”
Professor Eleanor Riley, an immunologist at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), had her own “horrible” attack of covid, which was “much worse” than expected.
“People’s antibody levels once morest Covid are probably as low now as before the first vaccine was introduced,” the expert explained.
Antibodies are like microscopic missiles that adhere to the surface of the virus and prevent it from infecting the cells of our body.
So if you have a lot of antibodies you can clear the virus quickly and hopefully any infection will be brief and mild.
“Now, because the antibodies are lower, a higher dose (of the virus) that you receive will cause a more severe attack of the disease,” Riley explained.
Antibody levels are relatively low because it has been a long time since most of the population was vaccinated (the young and healthy were only offered two doses and a booster) or we became infected, which also increases immunity.
For his part, Professor Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London, said: “What made the big difference before was the wide and rapid rollout of vaccines; “even young adults managed to get vaccinated and that made an absolutely huge difference.”
This year in countries like the United Kingdom, fewer people are being offered the vaccine. Last winter, everyone over 50 years old might have one. Now it is only those over 65 years of age, unless they are in a risk group.
Although he assured that he is not a “catastrophist,” Openshaw predicted that “many people will suffer from a rather unpleasant illness that will knock them out for several days or weeks.”
“I’ve heard of people having nasty bouts of Covid, many of whom are young and fit. It’s a surprisingly torturous virus, sometimes making people very sick and sometimes causing this thing called ‘Covid.’ prolonged,'” he asserted.
The expert believes that there are “good chances” that those people who did not contract covid during the last year will suffer from it in the future.
The UK government’s official decision was to vaccinate those who are at risk of dying from Covid or need hospital treatment. The latter with the purpose of relieving pressure on the National Health Service (NHS).
“But that doesn’t mean that people under 65 aren’t going to contract COVID and feel very bad,” Riley clarified.
“I think the consequence of not offering a booster vaccine to a broader spectrum of the population is that we will have more people out of work for one, two or three weeks during the winter,” he added.
Decisions regarding who gets vaccinated aren’t the only thing that has changed: the virus is changing, too.
“Low immunity”
Antibodies are very precise as they depend on a close match between themselves and the part of the virus they attach to. The more a virus evolves to change its appearance, the less effective antibodies become.
“The viruses circulating now are quite distant immunologically speaking from the original virus that was used to manufacture the first vaccines or that last infected the population,” warned Openshaw.
“Many people have very little immunity to Omicron viruses and their variants,” he noted.
If a person feels unwell because of covid, or sees that it lasted longer than other convalescences, the explanation might be this combination of waning antibodies and an evolving virus.
However, this does not mean that you are more likely to become seriously ill or need hospital treatment.
A different part of our immune system, called T cells, is activated once there is an infection and is trained by past infections and vaccines.
T cells are harder to fool by mutant viruses, as they detect cells that have been previously infected with Covid and kill them.
“They will prevent you from getting seriously ill and ending up in the hospital, but in that process of eliminating the virus there is collateral damage that makes you feel pretty bad,” Riley admitted.
Relying on T cells to clear Covid is what causes muscle pain, fever and chills.
So where does this leave the idea that Covid is on its way to becoming a mild, harmless infection?
There are four other human coronaviruses, related to Covid, that cause common cold symptoms. One of the reasons they are believed to be mild is that we contract them in childhood and then throughout our lives.
However, Professor Openshaw is clear in warning that “we are not there yet” with Covid, but “with repeated infections we should develop natural immunity”.
In the meantime, will some of us have to endure a nasty winter?
“I’m afraid so,” Riley admitted.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c4nyxve0gleo, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-12-18 11:20:06
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