What Do I Do With This Information?

We have a few recommendations for anyone receiving a SARS-CoV-2 study vaccine:

Be sure to ask for documentation from your vaccine study team that explains your participation in the study. It should include information about the SARS-CoV-2 “spike” vaccine, meaning that you may produce a spike antibody response.

What Are Vaccines?

A vaccine is a substance that teaches your body to recognize a foreign invader, such as a virus, sound an alarm to activate your immune system, and instruct your fighter cells and proteins to go to work to fight the virus. The goal of a vaccine is to eliminate or control the virus in your body, which could prevent infection, or control an infection from developing into disease. The vaccine causes the immune system to respond by looking as much like the invading virus as possible without causing disease itself.

What Are Monoclonal Antibodies?

An antibody is a Y-shaped protein produced by B cells, which are part of the immune system. There are several different kinds of antibodies, and typically vaccines are designed to produce the antibodies that recognize and “tag” viruses as foreign invaders by binding to unique parts of a virus.

How Are Antibodies Different From Vaccines?

In traditional research, people get a vaccine and scientists wait to see if their bodies will respond to the vaccine by making antibodies against the virus. In antibody studies, we skip that step and give people the antibodies directly. We do this using intravenous infusions, commonly known as “getting a drip,” with injections into the skin or infusions under the skin. Another difference is that antibodies produced naturally by your body in response to a vaccine can last for a long time, but these laboratory-made antibodies usually only last for a few months, thus requiring people to get multiple infusions or injections on a regular schedule.

Vaccine-Induced Seropositivity (VISP)

What Is VISP?

Antibodies help prevent infection. Most vaccines stimulate the body to make antibodies. If you get a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, your body will likely develop antibodies to the virus. Because of this, some antibody-based tests for SARS-CoV-2 infection (these test for antibodies) may return a positive result even if you are not, or were not previously, infected with SARS-CoV-2. This is called a vaccine-induced seropositivity (VISP) test result. Screen reader support enabled.

What Do I Do With This Information?

We have a few recommendations for anyone receiving a SARS-CoV-2 study vaccine:

Be sure to ask for documentation from your vaccine study team that explains your participation in the study. It should include information about the SARS-CoV-2 “spike” vaccine, meaning that you may produce a spike antibody response.