Thread by @DrDinD

This article contains appropriate skepticism about #COVID19 reinfection.

First important note: reinfection is reflected in .2% of cases in China, and one case each in Japan & S Korea.

Most likely reasons are testing errors or premature release.

latimes.com/world-nation/s…

US based infectious disease experts confirm likely errors:

"They say testing errors are more likely to blame — either false negatives that resulted in patients being discharged too early, or false positives when they retested and were taken back into hospital."

"What’s more likely is that people are being released from hospitals while still carrying dormant fragments of the disease that are not infectious but resemble the virus when put through a nucleic acid test, "

"Another possibility is that the level of virus fell below the threshold that tests could detect but then resurfaced, said Dr. Clifford Lane, deputy director for Clinical Research and Special Projects at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases."

In most viral infections, when you survive it is because your immune system has developed antibodies that enable T killer cells to recognize & kill the virus in other cells.

HIV is an exception because it attacks T helper cells & because it mutates rapidly.

Herpes viruses hang out in nerve cells so while you can develop immunity outside of nerve cells (reflected in the lower incidence, duration of cold sores after initial infection for example) your immune system won't attack nerve cells

The seasonal flu comes about because the flu virus can mutate in living reservoirs of other animals then jump the species barrier to humans. The mutated strains are sufficiently different the immune system must recognize them anew.

So far as I am aware, there is nothing in the #COVID19 virus that indicates any thing like these features of herpes or HIV. We have to see as time goes forward if it is like flu.

So be aware the most likely explanations of "reinfection" are faulty testing or premature release