I’m not an MD, but you can’t throw a biscuit at my house at a family Thanksgiving dinner without hitting one so I have access to experts. I want to dispel one piece of COVID-19 hysteria: If you’ve already had it, you can get it again so you shouldn’t feel safe. 1/
There is evidence emerging that the antibodies developed following infection may be highly protective. This is great news because the only way a vaccine would be effective 2/ sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/t…
is if the antibodies developed after exposure actually provide protection from the virus. So if you don’t believe people who have had it have at least some length of immunity, get used to the virus because there will be no vaccine. So why do some people who have had the virus 3/
test positive again later? This is rare, but there are at least a couple of explanations. First, it may be that their immune system did not actually develop antibodies due to some other underlying issue. For someone who has had it, 4/
just getting a negative virus test after illness may not be enough. They should also have an antibody test. BTW if you read the article above there is evidence that people who have had other coronaviruses have developed t-cell helpers that keep this virus at bay. It may explain5/
asymptotic patients, though the scientific community has not yet reached that conclusion. A second reason people may test positive again is that they never completely got over the virus in the first place and it’s flaring back up. The virus may have been suppressed 6/
enough at the time of the test that enough wasn’t collected to test positive, but it was still active in the system. Bottom line is we are going to have to get used to living with this virus. We can’t all stay home forever. Fin.
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