There are too many unanswered questions when it comes to COVID-19. Scientists know the coronavirus likely came from bats but aren’t sure how it hopped over to humans. Researchers are also unsure what makes the virus so effective at spreading and why it’s lethal for some healthy people yet doesn’t cause symptoms in most children. It is also still unknown whether the virus is seasonal, can reinfect patients, or if a safe and effective vaccine will emerge to curtail the disease.
But I will be discussing the possibility of getting infected twice by COVID-19. It is widely believed that you become immune to coronavirus after the first infection. Here is what some experts have to say.
According to Li QinGyuan, director of pneumonia prevention and treatment at China Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, those who have been infected with Covid-19 develop a protective antibody – but it isn’t clear how long the protection lasts. “However, in certain individuals, the antibody cannot last that long,” Li told USAToday. “For many patients who have been cured, there is a likelihood of relapse.”
In children, it is currently believed that the virus causes the development of “at least short-term immunity. No one knows for sure, but most children likely develop at least short-term immunity to the specific coronavirus that causes Covid-19,” Dr Peter Jung, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston told The Huffington Post. “But just as the flu can mutate, so could Covid-19, which would make an individual susceptible to reacquiring the infection.”
However, according to Dr Stephen Gluckman, an infectious diseases physician at Penn Medicine and the medical director of Penn Global Medicine, who spoke to the outlet, it seems likely that having the disease once results in immunity in most individuals – as is seen with other viruses.
Whatever is the case you need to stay safe to avoid a second wave of the virus. While we wait for vaccines let us be very active in curbing the spread of COVID-19 by adhering to WHO coronavirus guidelines.