Vaccineologist: COVID-19 Vaccine Can Still Protect Even Though Antibody Drops

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JAKARTA - The vaccinologist and internal medicine specialist Dirga Sakti Rambe stated that the vaccine can still protect the body from COVID-19 attacks even though antibody levels have decreased six months after vaccination.

"After six months, the antibodies start to drop, but there is still protection because there are memory cells. If we are exposed to the virus, the antibodies will spike high, so it doesn't mean that after six months there is no protection at all", he said, quoted by Antara, Thursday, July 29.

"In absolute terms, our antibody levels may drop, but if they are exposed, memory cells will be active and there will be a spike in antibody production, so it is hoped that if we get COVID-19, we will not get severe COVID-19", continued Dirga, who practices in Omni Pulomas Hospital Jakarta.

Dirga explained that antibody levels would increase the first time they got the vaccine, but then they would decrease over time.

However, according to him, people who have been vaccinated against memory cells will become active again and their antibody levels will increase again when they are infected with the virus.

He also emphasized that the focus on expanding the scope of the COVID-19 vaccination was more important than giving the third dose of the vaccine, considering that Indonesia had not yet reached the target to vaccinate its 208 million population.

Previously, a Chinese study published in medRxiv showed that the antibodies the body produces after receiving an injection of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine decreased in six months.

The results of the study also showed that the study subjects who received the third injection of the vaccine experienced an increase in antibodies.