We recently conducted a study to find out key information about immunity and antibodies in response to COVID-19.<\/p>\n
As the only not-for-profit offering COVID-19 antibody testing at cost, we want to contribute to getting our communities back on track. By conducting this research and sharing our results, we believe it can help to advance our understanding of the virus and immunity to it.<\/p>\n
We would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete our survey. Your support is invaluable and has helped us to gain these key insights, which is immensely helpful in our ongoing research.<\/p>\n
We wanted to gain a better understanding of antibody duration and reinfection from our community\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n
One of the key things that motivated this study was the opportunity to obtain insights from a wider set of individuals, as opposed to studies conducted to date which have focused on healthcare workers or the critically ill. As such, we strongly believe that our customer base of +20,000 individuals is extremely representative of the impact of COVID-19 across the UK.<\/p>\n
We had 5,349 respondents, 57% were female and 43% male. Of these, 27% tested positive for antibodies whilst 73% tested negative.<\/p>\n
Impact of severity of symptoms<\/strong><\/p>\n Reinfection and immunity<\/strong><\/p>\n For comparison, the Siren study<\/a> conducted by Public Health England detected 44 potential reinfections out of 20,787 participants.<\/p>\n The study was conducted between 18 June and 9 November and tested healthcare workers to gain a better understanding of rates of reinfection. Results from the research found that 83% of the participants had protection from reinfection that appeared to last for five months from first becoming unwell.<\/p>\n This research combined with our own gives us strong optimism that antibodies provide a degree of protection from reinfection. However, early evidence from the next stage of the Siren study<\/a> suggested that some people who are protected by antibodies still carry high levels of the virus and could continue to infect others, which highlights the importance of continuing to follow the social distancing guidelines to protect one another.<\/p>\n Antibody duration<\/strong><\/p>\n From looking at the data, we found that the longest duration for antibody analysis are those who were exposed to COVID-19 in March\/April 2020. There was limited testing available at the time, especially for mild cases outside of hospital or healthcare, which may have motivated individuals to take antibody tests in order to explain previous symptoms.<\/p>\n Kelly Klifa, Co-Founder of TFA, said: \u201cOur data clearly shows that COVID-19 antibodies can remain in the system over time and prevent individuals from becoming reinfected. This is great news for the vaccine programme, as it\u2019s based on the same premise \u2013 providing protection against the virus by encouraging the body to produce COVID-19 antibodies.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, the data also shows that not everybody who\u2019s had the virus retains antibodies in their system, and they may still be vulnerable to reinfection. We encourage everybody to get vaccinated as soon as the opportunity arises, but in the meantime, we\u2019re offering a way for people to understand whether they have antibodies, and if so, at what level.\u201d<\/p>\n Further research and advancements in diagnostics are vital in pinpointing the correlation between antibody levels and protection.<\/p>\n We recently launched our COVID-19 Immunity Tracker, which provides a quantitative view of protective IgG antibodies directed against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. The test can be used to monitor immune responses to natural infection and vaccination.<\/p>\n Another aspect of this test is that it can be used to compare results across other test manufacturers and in line with the World Health Organisation standards, helping us understand our immunity level even further.<\/p>\n James Monico, Co-Founder of TFA, said: \u201cVaccination is the way out of this crisis, but it also requires the close monitoring of immunity at an individual level through antibody testing. We need to better understand the connection between antibody levels and the extent of immunity \u2013 what is the cut-off point where individuals start to be at risk of infection again? It\u2019s also important to bear in mind that as variants emerge, and with immunity probably decreasing over time, there is no vaccine that currently provides a single silver bullet.<\/p>\n \u201cBy providing this test at an affordable price to everyone, we hope to contribute to a wider understanding of the rules of COVID-19 immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n For further understanding of our results, you can watch a recording of our recent webinar, COVID-19 Immunity: Findings from the Testing For All Study here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Please use this passcode to access the recording: jq?4Xnxr<\/strong><\/p>\n During the webinar, Kelly & James, TFA Co-Founders, together along with Dr Ren\u00e9e Hoenderkamp, our Clinical Advisor and resident GP for the BBC Radio London, discuss topics from our research and answer questions from the audience.<\/p>\n\n
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What\u2019s next for Immunity Research?<\/h4>\n
Missed our webinar?<\/h4>\n