It’s Still Too Early to Tell If You Can Get the Coronavirus Twice

While scientists are not yet fully certain whether you can get the coronavirus twice, they believe it’s unlikely.

Fox Business reported that health experts think those who had COVID-19 will “have some immunity against a repeat infection. But they don’t know how much protection or how long it would last.”

Some reports show people who test positive for the virus weeks after they seemingly have recovered. This leads some to think that they may have caught the virus again. Experts say that people were suffering from the same illness, or the tests may have detected remainders of the original infection – or the results were false positives.

It’s one of the big questions people have about COVID-19: Can you get the coronavirus twice?https://t.co/fbMrQ8BNbv

— WGN Morning News (@WGNMorningNews) July 28, 2020

Studies have shown that with similar viruses, people could get sick again three months to a year after the first infection. However, with the coronavirus, it is still too early to know.

“It’s very much emerging science,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the global public health program at Boston College.

The Associated Press reported that new research “suggests that antibodies the immune system makes to fight the new coronavirus may only last a few months in people with mild illness, but that doesn’t mean protection also is gone or that it won’t be possible to develop an effective vaccine.”

“Infection with this coronavirus does not necessarily generate lifetime immunity,” however, antibodies are only part of the story, said Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University.

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