SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2021
COVID-19 infection after
vaccine may confer ‘super
immunity,’ study indicates
By FEDOR ZARKHIN
The Oregonian
People who get COVID-19
despite being vaccinated
against the disease could
develop “super immunity”
against future coronavirus
infections, Oregon Health
& Science University
researchers have found.
“This is unusually high,
unusually effective,” lead re-
searcher Dr. Fikadu Tafesse
said of his findings, pub-
lished Thursday, Dec. 16 in
the Journal of the American
Medical Association. “You
get an extremely, extremely
high level of protection.”
Tafesse’s work comes
nearly two years into the
pandemic and as health
officials and world leaders
scramble to react to the lat-
est variant of the virus, the
rapidly spreading omicron.
The new variant was not
included in Tafesse’s study
but he said he is confident
the findings would apply to
it, as well.
After the delta variant
and low vaccination rates
quashed dreams of an
end to the pandemic this
summer, health officials
and the public have been
fearful of successive waves
of coronavirus variants.
More troubling now, early
research indicates omicron
can effectively evade even
vaccinated people’s immune
systems and that it spreads
more rapidly than the delta
variant.
For one of Tafesse’s col-
leagues on the project, the
OHSU research indicates a
potential “end game” for the
pandemic.
“It points to where we’re
likely to land,” Dr. Marcel
Curlin, associate professor of
medicine and a co-author of
BAKER CITY HERALD — A5
LOCAL & STATE
the study, said in a state-
ment. “Once you’re vacci-
nated and then exposed to
the virus, you’re probably
going to be reasonably well
protected from future vari-
ants.”
Still, it’s unclear what
concrete, practical implica-
tions the study provides,
whether for the 2.7 million
Oregonians and counting
who are fully vaccinated or
the 48,000 among them who
got infected anyway.
To get his results, Tafesse,
an assistant professor of
molecular microbiology and
immunology at the school of
medicine, compared the im-
mune system responses in
blood samples collected from
52 fully vaccinated OHSU
employees, 26 of whom had
a breakthrough infection.
Tafesse’s lab exposed
samples of the participants’
blood to live samples of five
variants of the coronavirus
— including delta — and
measured the volume and
effectiveness of the antibod-
ies the blood generated in
response.
They found a consistent
pattern: The antibodies
in the blood from those
who had a breakthrough
infection were as much as
1,000% more effective than
the antibodies generated
by those who had only been
vaccinated.
Antibodies are one of the
immune system’s key lines
of defense against infection.
The first viral infection — or
vaccine dose — teaches the
immune system what the
virus looks like. When there
is another exposure or infec-
tion, antibodies tailor-made
for that specific virus seek
out, bind to and neutralize
the virus.
“Our study suggests that
individuals who are vac-
cinated and then exposed
to a breakthrough infec-
tion have super immunity,”
Tafesse said.
Not only were there more
antibodies in the blood of
those with infections, but
those antibodies were more
versatile. They effectively
recognized different vari-
ants as versions of the same,
fundamental virus, and
acted accordingly.
The reaction and pattern
were so strong, Tafesse said
he is confident antibodies
would recognize omicron
and produce a similarly
robust response.
A key question Tafesse
is now trying to answer
is whether booster shots
provide as much protection
as breakthrough infec-
tions. He said he hopes to
release the results of his
ongoing research into that
question by mid-January.
Pfizer-BioNTech said last
week blood from people with
three doses of their vaccine
produced 25 times more
antibodies when exposed to
the omicron variant than
blood from people who got
only two doses.
It’s a “very, very im-
portant” question, Tafesse
said, because he would like
to be able to advise the
public to get booster shots.
Even though he expects
the two to be comparable,
there’s a possibility break-
through infections offer
more protection.
Vaccines target only
specific portions of the virus,
meaning that if those por-
tions mutate, an inoculated
immune system might not
recognize the mutated vari-
ant as the coronavirus.
DISEASE
Continued from A1
But because there is no
special hunting season for
whitetails — they are legal
quarry during seasons, the
same as mule deer — Ratliff
said the dieoff won’t lead to
a reduction in hunting tags
in the Sumpter unit, which
includes Baker Valley.
An outbreak of EHD
killed an estimated 2,000
white-tailed deer in Uma-
tilla County during the fall of
2019, resulting in the cancel-
lation of some deer hunts in
that area.
The virus poses no threat
to people, cats or dogs. Nor
can people become ill by eat-
ing the meat of a deer or other
animal infected with EHD.
Deer are infected only
by being bitten by midges;
deer can’t infect each other
through nose-to-nose contact,
as with some other diseases.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo
A white-tailed deer.
contributed to the severity of
this year’s EHD outbreak.
Deer tend to be most vul-
nerable to being infected by
midges when the animals are
concentrated around water
sources, the biologists said.
And with fewer of those
sources during this dry sum-
mer, there were likely larger
numbers of deer gathering
in places where they were
exposed to midges, Perrine
Union County
EHD also spread through said.
It’s not clear yet whether
white-tailed deer in Union
the EHD outbreak will
County this summer, in-
prompt ODFW to reduce
cluding in higher elevation
forested areas in the Wenaha hunting tag numbers for any
and Sled Springs units where 2022 seasons, Perrine said.
He said he hopes that’s not
the disease has rarely been
the case, particularly with a
confirmed in the past, said
popular muzzleloader hunt
Phillip Perrine, a wildlife bi-
ologist at ODFW’s La Grande for whitetails.
Ratliff said the EHD
office.
outbreak ended quickly once
“It was more prevalent
than we’ve seen,” Perrine said. freezing temperatures killed
the year’s crop of midges.
He didn’t have an esti-
Both he and Perrine
mate for how many deer
said they stopped receiving
died, although he said there
reports of dead deer in early
were outbreaks in both the
mountains and in the Grande fall.
“Once the conditions get
Ronde Valley.
Assessing the extent of the colder and these midges are
no longer on the landscape,
outbreak will be easier once
we didn’t really have any
ODFW receives hunter re-
ports and conducts its annual more losses,” Perrine said.
aerial deer census this month,
Perrine said.
Wallowa County
He said ODFW started
A total of 12 deer — 11
getting reports of dead white- whitetails and one mule deer
tailed deer in early summer,
— were confirmed by tests as
and, as in Baker Valley, tissue having died from EHD, said
samples confirmed EHD.
Bree Furfey, district wildlife
Both Perrine and Ratliff
biologist at ODFW’s Enter-
believe the severe drought
prise office.
The disease is also sus-
pected as the cause in another
mule deer’s death.
Furfey said she doesn’t
have an estimated total
number of deer deaths due to
the outbreak.
She said the virus was
most prevalent in and around
the city of Wallowa, but it was
also confirmed elsewhere in
the Wallowa Valley including
near Joseph, Lostine and En-
terprise, and in the northern
part of the county near Troy
and the Wenaha country.
Furfey said that although
the extent of the EHD
outbreak isn’t certain, she
doesn’t believe the death toll
among deer was high enough
to warrant any reductions in
hunting tags for 2022.
Rapid recovery?
Although white-tailed deer
are much more susceptible
to EHD, the species has an
advantage in that whitetail
populations tend to grow
faster than mule deer herds
when conditions are suitable,
Perrine said.
White-tailed does typically
have twin fawns each year,
he said.
“It’s difficult to overhunt
whitetails because they repro-
duce so quickly,” Perrine said.
Furfey and Ratliff also
cited the procreation potential
of whitetails as one reason
why this year’s EHD outbreak
likely won’t affect next year’s
hunting season.
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