8 ms·

There are some questions I haven't been able to find good answers to in addition to the one posed in the article: 1. Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice? 2.

There are some questions I haven't been able to find good answers to in addition to the one posed in the article: 1. Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice? 2. If (1) is true, are the symptoms the same (if applicable)? 3. If (1) is true are you still contagious? 4. There's evidence that there are multiple strains, can you get both strains? 5. What's the likelihood that a mutation will occur once treatment is more widespread? 6. Does the heat make it significantly less likely for you to get COVID-19? My impression so far is that we'll never get rid of this thing, and at best this will be something like the seasonal flu, where we'll just have to live with it and great shots yearly.

coliveira 7y ago
You will not find concrete answers online because this is a research area, scientists are not sure yet about how to answer these questions. And sometimes the existing answers are based on limited information or just misinformation.
- fendy3002 7y ago
  And this disease is still very new. There are too many unique cases and difference between cases that it's almost impossible to take any conclusion.
leesec 7y ago
1. Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice? No, doesn't seem to be, but you might still have "viral shedding" for a bit even after you are "recovered". meaning you could still be contagious. 4. There's evidence that there are multiple strains, can you get both strains? You shouldn't think about them as multiple strains, as of now it is 1 disease. 5. What's the likelihood that a mutation will occur once treatment is more widespread? Mutations occur all the time, there are already 10's of known mutations of virus, it doesn't mean there are 10 separate diseases. 6. Does the heat make it significantly less likely for you to get COVID-19? There's some evidence warm weather slows spread for viruses like this, but we can't assume that about this virus yet. A good counterpoint is Qatar adding 258 cases in one day, it's hot there.
- sutterbomb 7y ago
  Is Qatar hot and dry? I think heat with humidity are more likely to dampen the spread compared to just heat
  - cptskippy 7y ago
    > I think heat with humidity are more likely to dampen the spread compared to just heat That's odd to me because I associate warm and wet with uncleanliness and festering cesspools.
    - thisisnico 7y ago
      Welcome to living anywhere near the great lakes in summertime.
    - syllogism 7y ago
      This outbreak has made me realise how I've gone my whole adult life without knowing some basic things about bacteria and viruses. Like, I never knew about how soap dissolves the virus's outer coating... Anyway apparently hot and wet is good for bacteria, but cold is better for viruses. The bit that made it click for me is that viruses aren't metabolising anything outside of the host-cell, so the best a virus can hope for is to not be destroyed -- and cold is a better preservative. I'm still not sure whether hot and humid is better than hot and dry though? I think I read that hot and dry is worse, because it increases evaporation.
      - ch4s3 7y ago
        > I never knew about how soap dissolves the virus's outer coating That's not true for every type of virus, but it is true for corona viruses.
    - lonelappde 7y ago
      Humidity makes flu less contagious, likely because something about the wet heavy air deactivates airborne viruses. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/27533-flu-transmission-humidity.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/27533-f...
soperj 7y ago
Australia has a current outbreak that seems to be progressing the same way it does in every other country. It's summer there.
ajross 7y ago
Viral reinfection is a known thing. Immunology is just, well, really complicated. One person's antibodies may have worked against the same virus their family member's did, but not against some slightly mutated strain that arrives after circulating for a month. Or frankly, testing isn't perfect and it's possible he had the flu before and never had COVID-19 at all. In general, populations as a whole develop herd immunity to viruses reasonably quickly. This process is understood. Individual case data is always crazy. So: 1. Sometimes, 2. Probably, 3. Yes, 4. Maybe, 5. It'll definitely happen eventually, 6. Yes, almost certainly. And indeed, it will never go away, just like H1N1 flus have continued to circulate ever since the 1918 pandemic. But after a while, immune response and vaccination regimes will turn it into a nuisance.
yakovdk 7y ago
If your immune system develops an antibody based on epitopes that differ in the second strain, I would think you could contract it again. Two people who overcome a virus may ultimately derive different antibodies, and some may do better at matching the class of viruses than others. I don't think it's very common to be that unlucky in your own body's development of a suitable antibody. At least, this is my understanding based on a recent microbiology course I took. Immune response is a fantastically complex thing.
koheripbal 7y ago
There is no good evidence that there are different strains. That Chinese paper suggesting two strains has been withdrawn for lack of evidence. Enveloped Coronaviruses have RNA proofreading mechanisms to lessen mutations, so it is unlikely there are multiple strains.
Florin_Andrei 7y ago
> Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice? Is it truly "twice", is my question. Or is it just the same event, lasting longer than expected.
pmoriarty 7y ago
The "two strains" rumor was debunked on episode 590 of the This Week in Virology podcast. I've posted a transcript of the relevant portion here: [1] [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22564199 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22564199
rb808 7y ago
Its only been around a few months so hasn't had a chance to significantly mutate- and it hasn't needed to. As such its unlikely you'll get a second time any time soon, however in future years it could mutate. Here is an article on how they can see the DNA changing in different patients so can track the path of infections. https://bedford.io/blog/ncov-cryptic-transmission/ https://bedford.io/blog/ncov-cryptic-transmission/
- anigbrowl 7y ago
  There are two different strains already.
  - Scarblac 7y ago
    No, that paper was heavily criticised and then retracted.
    - anigbrowl 7y ago
      I don't think we're talking about the same thing.
lefty2 7y ago
There is very little known about this particular case - for instance what testing procedure were they using. It could be that the first test gave a false negative, or the second a false positive.

coliveira 7y ago

You will not find concrete answers online because this is a research area, scientists are not sure yet about how to answer these questions. And sometimes the existing answers are based on limited information or just misinformation.

fendy3002 7y ago
And this disease is still very new. There are too many unique cases and difference between cases that it's almost impossible to take any conclusion.

leesec 7y ago

1. Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice? No, doesn't seem to be, but you might still have "viral shedding" for a bit even after you are "recovered". meaning you could still be contagious. 4. There's evidence that there are multiple strains, can you get both strains? You shouldn't think about them as multiple strains, as of now it is 1 disease. 5. What's the likelihood that a mutation will occur once treatment is more widespread? Mutations occur all the time, there are already 10's of known mutations of virus, it doesn't mean there are 10 separate diseases. 6. Does the heat make it significantly less likely for you to get COVID-19? There's some evidence warm weather slows spread for viruses like this, but we can't assume that about this virus yet. A good counterpoint is Qatar adding 258 cases in one day, it's hot there.

sutterbomb 7y ago
Is Qatar hot and dry? I think heat with humidity are more likely to dampen the spread compared to just heat
- cptskippy 7y ago
  > I think heat with humidity are more likely to dampen the spread compared to just heat That's odd to me because I associate warm and wet with uncleanliness and festering cesspools.
  - thisisnico 7y ago
    Welcome to living anywhere near the great lakes in summertime.
  - syllogism 7y ago
    This outbreak has made me realise how I've gone my whole adult life without knowing some basic things about bacteria and viruses. Like, I never knew about how soap dissolves the virus's outer coating... Anyway apparently hot and wet is good for bacteria, but cold is better for viruses. The bit that made it click for me is that viruses aren't metabolising anything outside of the host-cell, so the best a virus can hope for is to not be destroyed -- and cold is a better preservative. I'm still not sure whether hot and humid is better than hot and dry though? I think I read that hot and dry is worse, because it increases evaporation.
    - ch4s3 7y ago
      > I never knew about how soap dissolves the virus's outer coating That's not true for every type of virus, but it is true for corona viruses.
  - lonelappde 7y ago
    Humidity makes flu less contagious, likely because something about the wet heavy air deactivates airborne viruses. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/27533-flu-transmission-humidity.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/27533-f...

soperj 7y ago

Australia has a current outbreak that seems to be progressing the same way it does in every other country. It's summer there.

ajross 7y ago

Viral reinfection is a known thing. Immunology is just, well, really complicated. One person's antibodies may have worked against the same virus their family member's did, but not against some slightly mutated strain that arrives after circulating for a month. Or frankly, testing isn't perfect and it's possible he had the flu before and never had COVID-19 at all. In general, populations as a whole develop herd immunity to viruses reasonably quickly. This process is understood. Individual case data is always crazy. So: 1. Sometimes, 2. Probably, 3. Yes, 4. Maybe, 5. It'll definitely happen eventually, 6. Yes, almost certainly. And indeed, it will never go away, just like H1N1 flus have continued to circulate ever since the 1918 pandemic. But after a while, immune response and vaccination regimes will turn it into a nuisance.

yakovdk 7y ago

If your immune system develops an antibody based on epitopes that differ in the second strain, I would think you could contract it again. Two people who overcome a virus may ultimately derive different antibodies, and some may do better at matching the class of viruses than others. I don't think it's very common to be that unlucky in your own body's development of a suitable antibody. At least, this is my understanding based on a recent microbiology course I took. Immune response is a fantastically complex thing.

koheripbal 7y ago

There is no good evidence that there are different strains. That Chinese paper suggesting two strains has been withdrawn for lack of evidence. Enveloped Coronaviruses have RNA proofreading mechanisms to lessen mutations, so it is unlikely there are multiple strains.

Florin_Andrei 7y ago

> Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice? Is it truly "twice", is my question. Or is it just the same event, lasting longer than expected.

pmoriarty 7y ago

The "two strains" rumor was debunked on episode 590 of the This Week in Virology podcast. I've posted a transcript of the relevant portion here: [1] [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22564199 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22564199

rb808 7y ago

Its only been around a few months so hasn't had a chance to significantly mutate- and it hasn't needed to. As such its unlikely you'll get a second time any time soon, however in future years it could mutate. Here is an article on how they can see the DNA changing in different patients so can track the path of infections. https://bedford.io/blog/ncov-cryptic-transmission/ https://bedford.io/blog/ncov-cryptic-transmission/

anigbrowl 7y ago
There are two different strains already.
- Scarblac 7y ago
  No, that paper was heavily criticised and then retracted.
  - anigbrowl 7y ago
    I don't think we're talking about the same thing.

lefty2 7y ago

There is very little known about this particular case - for instance what testing procedure were they using. It could be that the first test gave a false negative, or the second a false positive.