While the world focuses its efforts on collectively getting through the coronavirus pandemic, many questions are being asked, but a lot remain unanswered. For those who have been wondering when a vaccine will emerge, the answer brings grave news—it seems that the coronavirus vaccine isn’t due soon and will only be available in a year’s time.
It’s a well known fact that the virus causes mild symptoms in individuals that are healthy. Unfortunately, for both the younger and older folk, symptoms can end up being much more severe, even leading to death. That said, for those that have already caught the virus and recovered, there is one question that has most likely lingered in their mind: “Can I catch the COVID-19 virus twice?”
Catching COVID-19 Twice
Is it possible for an individual to catch the virus twice, even though our body undergoes a process called “immune memory?” Unfortunately, there’s a possibility.
While this is unlikely, it still happens. In South Korea, it has been reported that around fifty people who have caught the virus in the area of Daegu (the epicenter of the South Korean coronavirus outbreak), once recovered, have tested positive once more. However, it was hypothesized that the virus didn’t reinfect these individuals, rather, it was thought that the virus somehow remained in their bodies and merely “reactivated” itself.
Because of this, the question still stands on whether they got reinfected, or if it was simply a matter of them not fully recovering once they left quarantine. There is no solid answer to this question, and scientists still need to conduct a significant amount of research to figure out whether an individual is capable of catching COVID-19 once they’ve fully recovered from it.
Immunity to COVID-19
While it is known that the human body is capable of “learning” what virus they’ve just fought, allowing them to become much more prepared to fight it back, immunologists aren’t so clear as to how long this immunity to the virus will last. For example, like the common cold, it seems like our body only temporarily becomes immune to it. Over time, that immunity disappears, and we are, once again, prone to catching colds during certain seasons.
Other experts seem to be a lot more optimistic about this topic, believing that it is unlikely that a second positive test is because an individual has caught it the second time around. They believe that the positive result is due to patients not fully recovering.
Conclusion
Whether or not we are prone to catching the virus a second time, we can all agree that we should do whatever it takes to limit the spread of this virus that has wreaked havoc not only on the health of the population, but even the world’s economy. As time passes, and more people recover from the virus, more data will emerge, and more research can be done to answer the public’s questions on COVID-19.
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