Low Levels of Neutralizing Antibodies After Natural Infection With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in a Community-Based Serological Study

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Abstract

Background

Confidence in natural immunity after infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is one reason for vaccine hesitancy.

Methods

We measured antibody-mediated neutralization of spike protein-ACE2 receptor binding in a large community-based sample of seropositive individuals who differed in severity of infection (N = 790).

Results

A total of 39.8% of infections were asymptomatic, 46.5% were symptomatic with no clinical care, 13.8% were symptomatic with clinical care, and 3.7% required hospitalization. Moderate/high neutralizing activity was present after 41.3% of clinically managed infections, in comparison with 7.9% of symptomatic and 1.9% of asymptomatic infections.

Conclusions

Prior coronavirus disease 2019 infection does not guarantee a high level of antibody-mediated protection against reinfection in the general population.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.19.21253982: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Participants and study design: Between June 24 and November 11, 2020, N=4,562 adults in the Chicagoland area provided informed consent online, completed a web-based survey, and returned a self-collected finger stick DBS sample in the mail.
    IRB: All research activities were implemented under protocols approved by the institutional review board at Northwestern University (#STU00212457 and #STU00212472).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.