New Variant of Covid-19 Can Attack People Already Vaccinated, That’s What Unair Experts Say

Liputan6.com, Surabaya – Immunology expert at Airlangga University (Unair) Surabaya, Agung Dwi Wahyu Widodo, said that even though he had been vaccinated, Covid-19, a person can still experience the process of reinfection.

According to him, it arose for several reasons. First, because the antibody product produced by vaccination is still not high. As a result, the body is unable to neutralize the incoming virus, so the virus spreads and produces disease.

“In some cases, even if it is small, reinfection can occur in the new variant” Covid-19, Alpha. Likewise, the Beta variant which can cause re-infection, even though it is not high, “he said, Friday (11/6/2021).

“Secondly, in certain people the possibility of antibodies is not too high. So what happens is that the virus can survive and cause infection,” said Agung.

Agung said that Hong Kong and several European and American countries found that the viruses that infect after vaccination or reinfection are viruses with different variants.

“This kind of thing allows a reinfection process to occur. Even though you have been vaccinated, because the coronavirus has different variants, the re-infection process can occur,” he said.

Regarding the vaccine efficacy in the new variant, Agung said, in general, the Alpha variant can be neutralized against almost all vaccines. While in the Beta variant, many vaccines experience a process of decreasing efficacy.

“Some time ago, WHO has released a research report on the vaccine efficacy of various vaccines in the world. WHO states that vaccine efficacy varies from one person to another, how the response to this variant is,” said the Task Force Expert Council Covid-19 IDI East Java.

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