Are You Protected from DELTA Variant? (DEPENDS on THIS)

hey guys welcome to another video my name is  dr mike hansen and in this video i'm going to   try to answer as many questions i can about  level of protection versus the delta variant   so there are a lot of factors that  determine how protected you are   against the delta variant for example have  you had the vaccine if so which one have you   had did you have covid already did you have  the covid vaccine and covid infection   are you immunocompromised if so did you get the  booster shot already what if you had the vaccines   what will your level of protection be with  the booster shot when it's finally available   eight months after you received your first two  shots with the mrna vaccines so many different   variables and still more questions than answers  especially because delta is still fairly new   but in this video i'll answer them the best that  i can based on the available studies that we have   now i'm going to skip over the scenario that  you've not had covid or the vaccine because in   that scenario relatively speaking you have zero  protection that's a dangerous gamble and with   the odds looking bleaker and bleaker depending  on the underlying risk factors that you have   so let's start out with level of protection  someone has from previous covid infection   but they've not had the vaccine most people after  having a covid infection whether it's mild or   more severe illness they appear to have some  protection against sars cov 2 for about a year   this is based on a study published in nature that  looked at recovered patients there's also other   research showing that vaccinating these people  significantly enhanced their immune response to   the virus and gave them strong protection against  variants of concern such as the delta variant   for example researchers looked at immunity in  a group of recovered adult patients one month   and six months after they were infected and some  of them even had a 12-month follow-up blood draw   now the first study had 149 participants who  were considered to have recovered from covid   about 10 percent were hospitalized with the covid  people were excluded from the study if they had   long covid for example if they had ongoing  or persistent shortness of breath chest pain   fatigue fever or loss of taste or smell now of the  original 149 people 87 returned for the 6-month   follow-up and 63 came back for the 12-month  follow-up 41 ended up getting at least one dose of   the mrna vaccine and that was an average 40 days  before the 12-month follow-up visit so what were   the main takeaways from the study compared with  six months prior those who were not vaccinated   maintained most of their plasma antibodies against  the viruses receptor binding domain the rbd   also their plasma which contains antibodies  had similar neutralizing activity against a   non-replicating virus that was engineered with  the sars cov 2 spike protein now their memory b cells   that produce anti-rbd antibodies were  only slightly lower than at the previous visit   and had evolved to produce a broader and more  potent range of antibodies however their plasma   had less neutralizing activity against the  variants of alpha beta iota and gamma with   the greatest loss of activity against the beta  variant that was first detected in south africa   compared with unvaccinated participants those who  had received at least one dose of the mrna vaccine   had higher plasma anti-rbd antibodies in a  nearly 50-fold increase in neutralizing activity   so what's going on here for those who've  had covid vaccination boosts the memory   antibodies that develop after infection  causing there to be a more robust response   in this group neutralizing antibody levels  against the variants were higher than the levels   observed against the original strain and also  higher compared to fully vaccinated individuals   who did not have prior covid based on the numbers  from these studies there are also more recent   studies that supported this one study in north  america and the other in the uk it again showed   that a single dose of an mrna vaccine greatly  enhances the immune response to covid variants   in patients who've had previous covid infection  this is something called hybrid immunity so part   of the immunity coming from the immune system from  previous covid infection and the other coming from   the vaccine so about the delta variant it's still  relatively new so we're still learning a lot about it   a recent study in france looked at recovered  patients immunity against the delta variant   specifically they looked at unvaccinated  healthcare workers and they appeared to have less   protection against the delta and beta variants  compared with alpha and that was about a year   after they recovered from mild covid so in this  group 88 percent had neutralizing antibodies against alpha   and that's compared to 47 percent against delta but for  the recovered healthcare workers who had received   one dose of either astrazeneca pfizer or moderna  vaccines they had a huge increase in protective   antibodies against delta beta and alpha variants  so the big takeaway here is that vaccinating   people who had previous covid will likely  give them much higher protection against delta   and other variants so how long does immunity last  against the delta variant from vaccination alone   so in that same study from france they also  looked at those who received vaccination but did   not have previous covid infection they had high  neutralizing antibody levels against the alpha   beta and delta variants 8 to 16 weeks after  they received the two dose vaccine regimen in a   different study that looked at the pfizer vaccine  which at this point is a study that is a pre-print   so it's not yet peer-reviewed they looked at  over 45 000 people worldwide who received the   pfizer vaccine it apparently continued to show  strong protection against serious illness and   hospitalization after six months but overall the  protection started to wane around the six-month   mark so according to this july 28 pre-print report  the study found that the overall effectiveness of   the pfizer vaccine it went from 96 to 84 so it'll  be nice to see this study after it's peer reviewed   but if this turns out to be a high  quality study and the results hold up   it would make sense that a booster is needed so  you have this data that's in the works right now   and then there's more data that the cdc and the  biden administration is basing their decision on   based on several recent studies from health  systems that have been collecting data on   breakthrough infections these include the new  york state health department the mayo clinic   and the cdc's reporting system for nursing homes  in the united states and this is in addition to   israel's ministry of health abroad u.s surgeon  general dr vivek murthy said at his briefing   we know that even highly effective vaccines  become less effective over time it's now our   clinical judgment that the time to lay out a plan  for covid 19 boosters is now now according to   the cdc the studies don't show any major increases  in severe covid disease meaning there aren't any   major increases in hospitalizations and deaths in  fully vaccinated people but the data from israel   suggests an increased risk of severe disease  among those vaccinated early so the way that i   interpret that is the first group of people to  receive the vaccines back in december of 2020   people like myself healthcare workers the  protective antibodies likely will lose or start   to become less effective around that eight-month  mark it's really all about anticipation and   being proactive and not reactive so that's why  there's a plan to get these boosters in place   so starting in september the booster shots are  coming for those who receive the mrna vaccines   so eight months from the time you received  that vaccine that's when it's going to be   available so this does not apply to those who are  immunocompromised because the third booster shot   is already available for them now and as far as  level of protection in immunocompromised people   that's something i discussed in further  detail in my last video which you can see here   so a lot of people are asking if we need boosters  soon does that mean i'm no longer safe after just   two doses no anyone who's fully vaccinated is  still very well protected from getting seriously   ill from covid the anticipation is that once you  hit that eight month mark the antibodies are going   to start to wane and they won't be as effective  so what about for people who've had the johnson   and johnson vaccine for now the booster shots  are being advised only for the mrna vaccines but   a separate booster for that johnson and johnson  vaccine is likely coming soon once more data is   available some people want to know what do federal  agencies have to do to approve the booster before   september 20th in my opinion there's a good chance  that the fda will grant full approval to pfizer   and moderna for the two doses probably sometime  in the next few weeks and then follow that up   with an eua for the booster dose but that's just  speculation on my part it's also possible that the   fda delays full approval and then give later  full approval for all three at the same time   either way it's going to be the same process as  when it granted eua for the mrna and the johnson   and johnson vaccines what i want to see is the  data from these studies showing the numbers that   the booster is both safe and effective because  without that how can we move forward with a   booster what about the flu shot when will that  be given if you're also getting the booster shot   so far there aren't any guidelines on this from  the cdc mainly because it hasn't been studied   i think you can expect to see a recommendation for  any covid shot whether that be the booster or the   regular vaccine to be given at least a month apart  from the flu shot another question is weren't they   supposed to tweak the booster shot to accommodate  the new variants so as of right now the booster   shot is going to be the same as the first doses or  the first two doses and not genetically tweaked to   accommodate the new strains such as delta why most  likely because the booster's job will be to simply   boost the current immune system to get maximum  protection against these strains until you have   a variant that is escaping the vaccines meaning  lots of breakthrough infections that are causing   lots of hospitalizations and deaths there likely  isn't going to be a need to genetically tweak   the current vaccine but of course this can change  with time if a new variant proves to be escaping   the current vaccines so in summary what would be  your level of protection against the delta variant   if you had covid your level of protection is  probably mediocre but will likely fade with time   if you had just the vaccines it's probably more of  the same but stronger protection if you had covid   and the vaccine your protection is likely through  the roof and probably wouldn't need a booster   anytime soon but that is strictly my opinion at  the time of me making this video because that   level of protection would likely be the same  as someone who's not had a covid but had the   mrna vaccines in addition to the booster but time  will tell and this is being studied as we speak

Channel: Doctor Mike Hansen

Views: 541,208

Keywords: delta variant, delta variant covid, covid delta, delta plus variant covid, covid 19 delta variant, covid update, delta covid, delta virus, delta plus variant, delta covid 19, covid, vaccine, covid booster shot, covid booster, booster shot, sars cov 2, mrna vaccine, covid delta variant, covid vaccine, delta variant vaccine, pfizer delta, pfizer delta variant, natural immunity vs delta variant, moderna vaccine delta variant, delta, new covid variant, delta plus

Id: 7rbGTefVvWU

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 20 2021