Back in February, we saw some early reports that some coronavirus patients in China may have become infected again after their initial recovery.
The data was scarce and we haven’t had much to go on since then…until now. More recent studies now indicate that a certain percentage (possibly a third?) of “recovered” patients have so few antibodies to covid-19 that they’re able to get re-infected at a later date.
If indeed the case globally, this would dampen hopes by substantially retarding progress to herd immunity. And increasing the public health risk, especially since the severity of the infection seems notably worse the second time around.
Don’t despair yet, as there are material open questions regarding this new data that require further study. But it does reinforce the nefarious complexity of this honey badger of a virus.
In the meanwhile, keep up your self-protection efforts — social distance, good hygiene, PPE, and get that garden going!
