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2 separate studies are pointing to herd immunity being impossible because SARS-CoV-2 antibodies disappear over time and previous carriers could become infected

2 separate studies are pointing to herd immunity being impossible because SARS-CoV-2 antibodies disappear over time and previous carriers could become infected again. There haven’t been any cases of reinfection afaik but we’ll see in due time. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.20148429v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.20148429v... https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2025179 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2025179

refurb 6y ago
Right, but antibodies often are transient for some diseases. Once the infection disappears, the antibody levels drop. But if post-infection there are T-cells that recognize the virus, then future exposure to the virus results in a rapid and robust immune response.
goalieca 6y ago
Memory B cells exist and will produce antibodies as needed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_B_cell https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_B_cell Proving herd immunity impossible is a rather bold claim and the threshold for that has simply not been met. We do have a rather large confidence that this virus isn’t going anywhere and will be endemic. It will join the 200+ Cold viruses that hit us every year.