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Earlier this week, I tweeted that the headlines around the antibody study from the UK were misleading, and that the study doesn't actually suggest that immunity is waning. https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1321093259351961600
I wish this paper from Drs. Ania Wajnberg, @florian_krammer, Carlo Cordon-Cardo, & colleagues was getting as much attention. It shows that more than 90% of the people who seroconvert (develop antibodies) have neutralizing antibodies that persist for months https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/10/27/science.abd7728
Antibodies are not the full story with regard to protective immunity, but neutralizing antibodies are undoubtedly a more robust correlate of protection than looking at overall percentage of people with a detectable IgG titer, which is what the study in the UK investigated.
This study from the excellent team at Mt. Sinai demonstrates that these neutralizing antibodies are present in the vast majority of people with detectable IgG, and these persist for months post-infection. That suggests sustained, not waning, immunity.
We know that most people in both the US and the UK don't have any antibodies, because they haven't been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, don't worry about immunity waning. If you already had COVID-19, rest assured you probably have some immunity.
If you have not had COVID-19, don't worry about waning immunity and susceptibility to reinfection. Take precautions to avoid being infected in the first place so that you can be immunized with a safe, effective vaccine when one is available.
