Neutralizing antibodies are the proteins the immune system creates to stop a virus from spreading. The antibodies bind to the spike protein, preventing it from infecting cells. Coronavirus vaccines will actually teach the immune system to respond to the infection by inducing antibodies specific to COVID-19. Antibodies might disappear after a while, but the COVID-19 protection might last longer than that thanks to another set of immune system components: B and T cells patrolling the blood that will retain the memory of the virus.
Researchers have no idea how long coronavirus immunity will last, whether the protection follows infection or exposure to the virus. There’s hope immunity might last at least a year, but more time will have to pass for researchers to make such determinations. However, a subset of the population could have COVID-19 immunity from the moment they’re born: Babies whose mothers survived the coronavirus during pregnancy.
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