Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said this week health officials are beginning to see “a number of cases” reported as reinfections.
“Well-documented cases,” he said, ‘”of people who were infected, after a relatively brief period of time measured anywhere from weeks to several months come back, get exposed and get infected again.”
“So you really have to be careful that you’re not completely ‘immune,’” Fauci said.
While it is possible to get infected again with the virus, there are still questions scientists are working to answer, including who is more likely to get reinfected and how long antibodies protect people from another infection.
Scientists are studying how long antibodies last
Researchers from the University of Arizona found antibodies that protect against infection can last for at least five to seven months after a Covid-19 infection.
With the pandemic under a year old, it will likely take time before scientists can get a clear picture of immunity.
“That said, we know that people who were infected with the first SARS coronavirus, which is the most similar virus to SARS-CoV-2, are still seeing immunity 17 years after infection. If SARS-CoV-2 is anything like the first one, we expect antibodies to last at least two years, and it would be unlikely for anything much shorter,” Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunobiologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, previously told CNN.
Other studies, one out of Massachusetts and the other out of Canada, supported the idea of long-lasting immunity.
What’s unclear is how second infections could impact any Covid-19 vaccine. The Nevada man experienced more critical symptoms during his second infection while the Hong Kong…
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