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No one yet knows whether the antibodies detected in seropositive tests actually confer protection against getting sick from this virus. For some viruses, like,

No one yet knows whether the antibodies detected in seropositive tests actually confer protection against getting sick from this virus. For some viruses, like, say, HIV, you can have lots of antibodies against it, but still be sick with HIV. It is not yet clear whether SARS-CoV-2 is like HIV in this sense or if the antibodies produced by the body after infection with the virus actually confer protection against future infections.

standardUser 6y ago
There was a study where they tried to reinfect monkeys with the virus after they had developed a prior immune response. Even in laboratory setting, they could not reinfect the monkeys. https://www.livescience.com/monkeys-cannot-get-reinfected-with-coronavirus-study.html https://www.livescience.com/monkeys-cannot-get-reinfected-wi... That, plus every case of supposed reinfection that has occurred so far is either inconclusive or proven to be a case of false positives. The big one was in South Korea, where the KCDC later determined that their test was picking up dead virus fragments. It gets hard to keep pretending people can get COVID-19 over and over again. Maybe if had been documented 1000 times out of 13 million cases, but we haven't even seen anything close to that.
refurb 6y ago
That’s true, but what we know about the Coronavirus class suggests it’s not like HIV (where the immune response does little to control the infection). Again, there are a lot of unknowns, but focusing on edge scenarios or edge cases just leads down rabbit holes. I work in the healthcare space, and a physician recommended this review recently published in JAMA.[1]. He felt it was probably the best summary of all the data that’s out there (>29,000 papers on Covid). I found this particularly relevant - Although viral nucleic acid can be detectable in throat swabs for up to 6 weeks after the onset of illness, several studies suggest that viral cultures are generally negative for SARS-CoV-2 8 days after symptom onset. [1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768391 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768391
mlyle 6y ago
> No one yet knows whether the antibodies detected in seropositive tests actually confer protection against getting sick from this virus. We do know when we do detailed antibody assays on people who are seropositive, that most have developed neutralizing antibodies

standardUser 6y ago

There was a study where they tried to reinfect monkeys with the virus after they had developed a prior immune response. Even in laboratory setting, they could not reinfect the monkeys. https://www.livescience.com/monkeys-cannot-get-reinfected-with-coronavirus-study.html https://www.livescience.com/monkeys-cannot-get-reinfected-wi... That, plus every case of supposed reinfection that has occurred so far is either inconclusive or proven to be a case of false positives. The big one was in South Korea, where the KCDC later determined that their test was picking up dead virus fragments. It gets hard to keep pretending people can get COVID-19 over and over again. Maybe if had been documented 1000 times out of 13 million cases, but we haven't even seen anything close to that.

refurb 6y ago

That’s true, but what we know about the Coronavirus class suggests it’s not like HIV (where the immune response does little to control the infection). Again, there are a lot of unknowns, but focusing on edge scenarios or edge cases just leads down rabbit holes. I work in the healthcare space, and a physician recommended this review recently published in JAMA.[1]. He felt it was probably the best summary of all the data that’s out there (>29,000 papers on Covid). I found this particularly relevant - Although viral nucleic acid can be detectable in throat swabs for up to 6 weeks after the onset of illness, several studies suggest that viral cultures are generally negative for SARS-CoV-2 8 days after symptom onset. [1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768391 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768391

mlyle 6y ago

> No one yet knows whether the antibodies detected in seropositive tests actually confer protection against getting sick from this virus. We do know when we do detailed antibody assays on people who are seropositive, that most have developed neutralizing antibodies