Being vaccinated doesn’t mean immunity from COVID-19

ATLANTA — With so many people now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, it is important to be aware that vaccination does not equal immunity.

Since it started in 2017, biotech company Aditxt’s immune monitoring technology has shifted to now include your personal response to COVID-19.

“This is the time we need to understand our individual immunity profile,” co-founder Amro Albanna said.

Aditxt aimed to improve and even reprogram a person’s immune system response to the point where they could potentially get the immune system to accept transplanted organs, or to stop attacking its own cells or tissues to prevent autoimmune diseases. Then when COVID-19 hit the U.S. in 2020, vaccines became approved and available in record time for those who wanted it.

However, some anxious and ill-informed people thought vaccination meant immunity. It does not.

“It is really important for us to really understand individually what’s happening with antibodies, and when we switch over to cellular immunity, if we do,” Albanna stated.

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An Aditxt score from a blood sample generates and immune system report. Albanna thought he never contracted COVID-19, yet a test detected antibodies in his system. Albanna tests monthly and has watched his antibody count rise. The next step for Albanna and Aditxt is seeing when that transforms to cellular immunity.

“That’s really where our body and immune system will remember the virus and can recreate the antibodies when necessary,” Albanna said.

Looking beyond COVID-19, Albanna said we must switch from reactive testing to proactive monitoring to better understand what’s going on in our immune systems. That type of monitoring is set to happen in the next three months. For now, partner labs on the West Coast are offering this service, with the expectation of widening service across the U.S.

Cox Media Group