One of the best ways to combat COVID-19 is by understanding how your immune system responds to the virus.
That said, our body’s immune system is divided into two separate systems namely, the innate and adaptive (or acquired) immune systems.
Innate immune system is the first line of defense against viruses, which includes barriers like the skin and layers in our throat or gut, chemicals in our blood, and different immune cells.
On the other hand, the adaptive or acquired immune system helps with the production of antibodies and white blood cells to both attack and remember the virus, also known as B cells, which also helps fight off the virus, if it attacks a second time. This type of immune response is slower and may take days or weeks to generate.
There is also something called the T cells, which are also part of your adaptive immune system. Some of these stimulate B cells to make antibodies, while some others eliminate the cells that have been infected by the virus.
With that brief account of how the immune system functions under a virus attack, we can also determine why some people get more sick than others. Those with asymptomatic or mild infections, both innate and adaptive immune responses seem to work as planned and normally, however, in people who develop a more severe form of infection, experts believe it is due to a weakened immune system.
