townhall.com
While that title sounds like a Robert Ludlum novel, itās actually the confusion I encountered just before and after I recovered last week from my second round of COVID. My first fight with delta ā which I wrote aboutĀ hereĀ 3 months ago ā was much more serious, affecting my lungs and requiring the monoclonal antibody infusion, when Regeneron still worked for COVID. Omicron, on the other hand, was a super-mild cold that lasted 3 days. But the real kicker was how little doctors, pharmacists, and other medical professionals understood about the booster, immunity, and testing when it comes to the latest, raging, contagious variant.
When I first recovered from delta (with issues that Iām still dealing with everyday thanks to lung damage from Iraq from toxic exposure to burn pits), I read multiple medical journals. From what I gathered, I had natural immunity for 9 to 15 months, with conservative estimates at 6 months. I thought the same thing applied to my kids, who contracted delta from me. And while Iād been vaccinated last March with Moderna, I couldnāt get the booster until 90 days after the monoclonal antibody infusion. And then omicron hit.
I read more medical journals and studies that indicated hybrid immunity from both natural infection and a vaccine or booster was the best protection against omicron. One of my doctors at Hopkins thought I should get the booster after the 90 days, while another of my doctors thought I should be fine for up to 6 months. Iād also had my blood work done recently, and my antibody level exceeded 2500 ā the maximum limit measurable ā on the Roche test, which any Labcorp will do upon request. After weighing my choices, I ā not anyone else ā made the decision to get the Moderna booster. The pharmacist who administered it said, āIt canāt hurt, but no one really knows anything about this variant,ā and as a Marine, Iām all about the ready-fire-aim philosophy.
