Well we’re getting into a semantic argument regarding immunization. Not all vaccines involve needles. There are oral vaccines and nasal vaccines for example.
Since “vaccine” serves the purpose of immunization for the purpose of discussing the requirements of immunization that is what I went with.
But yes, “immunization status” works for me. I don’t think it matters how a person acquires antibodies as long as they have them.
Then why did you get a second vaccination and a booster?
Hey, it ain’t my fault. Immunization is textbook artificial, active immunity. They never counted on antivaxxers when they wrote the textbooks back in the day.
Relevant article discussing why you cannot yet rely on antibody tests for COVID-19:
“So a positive test will simply tell you if you’ve had the vaccine (which shouldn’t be news to anyone!) or if you’ve been exposed to the virus, but not how protected you are. If you haven’t gotten the vaccine and you’re tempted to take an antibody test to see if you might have been infected and not realized it, that still doesn’t mean you’d have any guarantee against reinfection. And regardless of the result, the recommendation from public health agencies is to get vaccinated.”
Out of curiosity, is there any way to tell the difference between a vaccine immunity and infection based?
I’ve been vaccinated and boosted, and I don’t think I’ve had COVID. I’ve taken the at home test a few times, mostly before I go to visit my parents, and never come up positive.
Is there a blood test that would tell me if I’ve ever had COVID, or would having had the vaccine mask that?
Yes, you can be tested for antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein. You aren’t exposed to it by any of the US vaccines, and essentially everyone who develops antibodies to the live virus develops antibodies to it.
But i think you need a doctor’s prescription to get that test. At least, i couldn’t find it available to consumers.
(The red cross used to do it on every donor, but they’ve stopped.)
(You presumably would also test positive to antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein if you got the Chinese killed-whole-virus vaccine, but as it’s not available in the US, that’s not relevant for most Americans.)
This was how I found out I’d had an asymptomatic case, sometime before June 2020. For the next six months, I was donating convalescent plasma along with platelets, particularly as the winter wave was cresting - then they shut me down for another six months and told me to rebuild my fluid balance.
And, for the record, I never considered that test to be equivalent to a vaccination, though it did give me some degree of confidence that a second infection probably would not prove fatal - hence, I was grocery shopping for seven people in three households for a while…
I had J&J and a booster for the same reason you did. That has nothing to do with the thread.
What do you think about the CDC’s information on antibody levels from people who got covid?
It might not be what you want this thread to be about, but it’s certainly what we’re discussing here. If you just want to witness there is a forum for that, but you are likely to get people who disagree with you there as well. If you just want affirmation, you’ll probably need a different site altogether. You said, and I quote:
You had antibodies after your very first vaccine. Why would you get a booster if it doesn’t matter?
Since I was the one who started the thread then the nature of the discussion starts there. If YOU want to discuss something else then start your own thread. This thread is about recognizing antibodies that occur naturally as fulfilling the role that a vaccine creates. It shouldn’t matter if the antibodies were developed from a shot, a tablet, a nose spray, or from getting covid. There is no scientific reason for ignoring any of those.
I’ve posted a cite from the CDC showing that natural antibodies did better with Delta yet it isn’t accepted as having established a level of immunization. Those people who have these antibodies are more secure than those who had shots.
But we don’t recognize that fact. Hell, you don’t seem to agree with that premise either, since you seemed to think a booster was worth taking even though you had antibodies from the initial vaccine. I was thinking perhaps you had some other reason to get a booster, but since you don’t actually want to answer, I’ll stick with my assumptions.
Again, if you just want affirmation, I can suggest some sites.
I see that the same misconceptions keep reappearing in this thread, over and over and over again.
See post #297, which discusses problems inherent in relying on antibody titers to determine immunity from Covid-19, which include determining just what level is protective, and the importance of other immune system parameters that may be equally or more vital than antibody levels, i.e. protective T-cell and memory B-cell status.
A single-minded focus on antibody titers doesn’t make sense.
Enough!*
To address another issue which has been misstated in this thread: while full vaccine protection (currently defined as two doses of Covid vaccines plus booster) does not eliminate transmission of the virus, there’s evidence it does reduce transmission compared to the unvaccinated.
"To summarize, the study findings demonstrate that unvaccinated persons were more susceptible to infection by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, whereas booster-vaccinated individuals were less susceptible as compared to fully vaccinated individuals in Delta VOC-infected households. Furthermore, a lower susceptibility for booster-vaccinated individuals was detected among those living in families infected with the Omicron VOC. In addition, there was enhanced transmissibility from unvaccinated individuals and decreased transmissibility from booster-vaccinated individuals.
It would have been wonderful if one or more Covid-19 vaccines was successful in 100% prevention of infection by all variants with just one shot. The fact that it hasn’t happened is not a reason to conclude that the vaccines are ineffective. A lot of people have fallen prey to the Nirvana fallacy, i.e. that which is not perfect is worthless.
While I share some frustration about the vaccines not being better, I’m also highly grateful that a lot of dedicated and skilled people were able to get these safe and relatively effective vaccines to us in record time.
*I have a feeling that if I return to this thread in a few days, Magiver will still be blithely going on about how measuring antibody levels post-infection is all we need to certify people as having adequate immunity to Covid-19. 
It makes complete sense when your goal is discourage vaccines and vaccine mandates.
I got sick, I’m “immune”! My new favorite word is “immune” in quotation marks! It could mean whatever you want it to mean.
I mean, we DO measure antibody titers as one way to test for immunity to measles and german measles. We don’t use it for a lot of other things. We MIGHT someday be able to use it for covid, or we might not. It’s not a priori a terrible idea. It just isn’t something that we can actually do right now for covid.
Yes. I’d like @Magiver to answer this question.
And I said that there are other studies, including from the cdc, that contradict that. You insist on ignoring that.
Not only that, not all available tests are quantitative. So, to prove immunity, they should have to a fully quantitative test and a neutralization test with the current variant. Or they can get the bloody vaccine.
where in this thread or any other thread did I say a booster didn’t matter?
It’s all about the antibodies produced.
I posted a cite from the CDC that shows their study indicated natural immunity provides better immunity than the current vaccines.
So either the CDC is wrong or we should be adding natural antibodies into the mix of immunity requirements.
Science link
Having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccine
Science
The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a large Israeli study
It’s not complex issue.
If I’m not mistaken, that very same study found three doses of Pfizer superior to previous infection at generating immunity. At any rate, several studies have found that.
(As measured by propensity to get sick. Not just by counting antibodies. Because just counting antibodies is not currently adequate knowledge to act on.)