Covid-19 Vaccines — Immunity, Variants, Boosters
Dan H. Barouch
Abstract
T he coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has claimed an estimated 15 million lives, including more than 1 million lives in the United States alone. The rapid development of multiple Covid-19 vaccines has been a triumph of biomedical research, and billions of vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. Challenges facing the Covid-19 vaccine field include inequitable vaccine distribution, vaccine hesitancy, waning immunity, and the emergence of highly transmissible viral variants that partially escape antibodies. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge about immune responses to Covid-19 vaccines and the importance of both humoral and cellular immunity for durable protection against severe disease.
Topics & Concepts
VirologyImmunityCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)MedicineSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)2019-20 coronavirus outbreakImmunologyImmune systemInfectious disease (medical specialty)DiseaseOutbreakPathologySARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 ResearchImmune responses and vaccinationsCOVID-19 Clinical Research Studies