In this immunology explainer, I noted that some anecdotal accounts of COVID-19 reinfections exist, but to confirm them, you'd need to sequence the genes of the virus from both infections and show they were subtly different.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
A HK team has apparently done that. If true, this would be the first *confirmed* case of reinfection. (Note: there's a press release, and someone has posted screengrabs of parts of the paper, but the whole thing isn't online 😡)
BUT...
BUT...
As I wrote, it's not surprising/worrying if reinfections *can happen*. More important Qs are:
- How common are they? (Not addressed in this study)
- Is the 2nd time more/less severe than the 1st? (2nd infection was asymptomatic here, but that's 1 case.)
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
- How common are they? (Not addressed in this study)
- Is the 2nd time more/less severe than the 1st? (2nd infection was asymptomatic here, but that's 1 case.)
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Here's a good thread by @angie_rasmussen
I share her annoyance that this was PR'd w/o the full paper being readily available.
I share her annoyance that this was PR'd w/o the full paper being readily available.
And I maintain that it's more valuable to learn how to think about COVID immunology in general than to pick apart any one study. This should help: theatlantic.com/health/archive…
