Will it Fade?

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Anchor lead: Should we be concerned about immunity when antibodies are given as therapy? Elizabeth Tracey reports

At least two types of antibody therapy are now being used for Covid-19, yet some concerns remain about whether such therapy will compromise the patient’s own immune response. Arturo Casadevall, an antibody expert at Johns Hopkins, says only following such patients over time will provide an accurate answer.

Casadevall: We need to do one thing first. We need to study those who are treated, and we need to see what happens to their antibody responses. There is a lot of noise out there that these antibody responses go all the way down, and people are making what I think are the association of low antibody response increases susceptibility. We don’t know that. The amount of antibody that is needed to protect you may be a minute amount, compared to the amount that you make right after.  As these patients get treated, they go home, they recover, some of them need to be studied to see what happens to their antibody responses.  :32

Casadevall says what is known is that when antibodies are given early they help. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.