The Impact of COVID-19 Immunity in Vaccine Development

The process of development of immunity to pathogen through natural infection has multi-steps, which typically takes 1 - 2 weeks. As the body’s first line of defense, the immune system responds to foreign substances. In which macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells come to work to either slow down the progress of the virus or, in some cases, to suppress it. The innate immune system has the ability to “remember” foreign substances, so the next step is producing antibodies (proteins that are also known as immunoglobulin) to make the response faster. In addition, the body also produces T-cells that detect and destroy cells infected with viruses, which is called cellular immunity. Therefore, triggering the adaptive immunity by an infection stimulates the body’s response that results in either elimination of the virus or preventing severe illnesses, while protecting the body against reinfection. As the presence of antibody indicates previous infection, it’s a criterion to measure the immunological response (1).