However, Health experts from Oregon Health and Science University say the same is also true for people who get infected before getting two jabs. The scientists took blood samples from 104 university employees who were double-jabbed with Pfizer.Volunteers were divided into three groups based on their previous infection status. Forty-two participants had never tested positive. All of the others had either caught the coronavirus before being vaccinated, or were infected after getting their two jabs.The experts then exposed their blood to three Covid variants: Alpha, Beta and Delta.They found both of the groups with “hybrid immunity” generated greater levels of immunity compared with the group that was vaccinated with no infection.Their antibodies were 10 times more potent than proteins made by participants who managed to dodge Covid completely.And despite the study being completed before the emergence of Omicron, the scientists expect that the immune response to the new variant will be similar.“It makes no difference whether you get infected-and-then-vaccinated, or if you get vaccinated-and-then-a-breakthrough infection,” author Dr Fikadu Tafesse said.“In either case, you will get a really, really robust immune response – amazingly high.”Dr Tafesse said the high levels of protection among those with hybrid immunity could see the virus become a ‘mostly mild’ infection and bring about the end of the pandemic.“The likelihood of getting breakthrough infections is high because there is so much virus around us right now,” he said.“But we position ourselves better by getting vaccinated. And if the virus comes, we‘ll get a milder case and end up with this super immunity.”However, researchers warned that unvaccinated people are likely to catch Covid multiple times and their immune response is “much more variable”.“Immunity from natural infection alone is variable. Some people produce a strong response and others do not,” Dr Marcel Curlin, study author and infectious disease expert, said.“But vaccination combined with immunity from infection almost always provides very strong responses.”The results — which were published in Science Immunology — didn‘t compare antibody levels between hybrid immunity and those who are triple-jabbed.But the scientists say the findings could mean that every new breakthrough infection — when people test positive despite being vaccinated — “potentially brings the pandemic closer to the end”. “I would expect at this point many vaccinated people are going to wind up with breakthrough infections – and hence a form of hybrid immunity,” fellow researcher Dr Bill Messer said.The research follows an OHSU study in December which found vaccinated people who had a mild breakthrough case had many more antibodies in their blood than those who had been vaccinated but had not been infected with the virus.
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