3 ms·
The Quest website warns that having the antibodies does not necessarily mean you are immune. Is it really likely that reinfection is possible less than a year a
by elil17 6y ago
The Quest website warns that having the antibodies does not necessarily mean you are immune. Is it really likely that reinfection is possible less than a year after initial infection, or is that just something they have to write as a disclaimer?
- CameronNemo 6y agoAs a lay person, I think it is somewhere in the middle. In all likelihood antibody presence does mean some level of immunity or at least resistance. But testing is still only measuring presence of antibodies, not their efficacy in resisting future infections. Furthermore somebody who is reinfected but has antibody driven resistance may end up behaving as an asymptomatic case. https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-treatment-antibody-study-confirms-immunity-recovered-covid-19-patients-2972519 https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-treatment-antibody-study...
- vikramkr 6y agoWe just don't know right now. Some antibodies could work better than others, so for some people it could mean yes and for others no. Could be different for symptomatic vs asymptomatic patients. Some antibodies could make the disease worse through ADE. Immunity is probably conferred for at least a couple months since we dont see a huge number of reinfection, but we dont know whether it trails off after a year or two or goes below an important concentration threshold since there physically hasn't been enough time since the start to measure immunity out to a couple years. In general, you're probably fine, but maybe not, and the test could also be giving you a false positive.