3 ms·
Just a note, no evidence of how much immunity yet. We are hoping that is the case but there are also a few loose stories of people getting covid a 2nd time. We
by bwb 7y ago
Just a note, no evidence of how much immunity yet. We are hoping that is the case but there are also a few loose stories of people getting covid a 2nd time. We should know more in a few weeks to a month...
- Reason077 7y agoThere are a few reports of people returning a positive test a second time. That is not the same thing as getting infected a second time.
- maxerickson 7y agoThe blood test looks for antibodies, so it detects whether the person has had an immune response to the virus. The GP is pointing out that having an immune response to a first infection has not been riguorsly demonstrated to prevent future infection. If we are unlucky, immunity may only persist for a short period of time.
- DanBC 7y agoWhich blood test currently in use looks for antibodies?
- maxerickson 7y agoIt's explained on the page I linked earlier in the thread. A founder of the company that developed it is paying to have the county where he lives tested.
- Reason077 7y agoI believe in those "recovered patient tested positive again" cases, they are talking about PCR testing (which detects virus RNA), not blood antibody tests.
- maxerickson 7y agoOkay, I see what you are saying. Both things can be true though, we don't know how persistent the immune response will be.
- Reason077 7y agoAntibodies (Immunoglobulins) will fade over time, and may not be detectable in the blood after a while. So a negative antibody test for Covid-19 wouldn't necessarily mean you're not immune. However, immunity should persist for a long time, perhaps even for life. That's because the immune system retains memory of past pathogens and knows how to make new antibodies quickly if needed. The reason we seem to keep getting infected with cold and flu, year after year, is because these are actually different viruses each time.
- maxerickson 7y agoYou are carefully explaining the mostly true generality. The fact remains, we simply don't know how long immunity will persist for a given novel virus. We will find out over the next months and years, but at this time, we do not have concrete knowledge about SARS-CoV-2.
- maxerickson 7y agoYes, "not a large group that had a positive blood test" would be better.