All the reports of people becoming ill (or testing positive) after only a month are almost certainly not ‘reinfections’, rather are some combination of false negatives and people with immune systems damaged by the infection having a bit of a relapse. There are also no documented cases of one of these relapses infecting even close family contacts. Shed viruses seem to be nonviable with much less of an immune response than is required to clear it from within the body.
It is definitely possible that the immunity could fade rapidly, but even if that is true I expect second infections to be much less severe than the first infection. Mostly because it looks like most of why this disease is so severe is that the virus escapes the interferon response allowing it to replicate up to an obscene level before the adaptive immune system notices it. Even a weak antibody response will allow the innate immune system to notice the fact that there is an infection, and it will probably have a harder time replicating up to such ridiculous levels.
This being said… we are definitely going to be living with this bastard for a while.
All the reports of people becoming ill (or testing positive) after only a month are almost certainly not ‘reinfections’, rather are some combination of false negatives and people with immune systems damaged by the infection having a bit of a relapse. There are also no documented cases of one of these relapses infecting even close family contacts. Shed viruses seem to be nonviable with much less of an immune response than is required to clear it from within the body.
It is definitely possible that the immunity could fade rapidly, but even if that is true I expect second infections to be much less severe than the first infection. Mostly because it looks like most of why this disease is so severe is that the virus escapes the interferon response allowing it to replicate up to an obscene level before the adaptive immune system notices it. Even a weak antibody response will allow the innate immune system to notice the fact that there is an infection, and it will probably have a harder time replicating up to such ridiculous levels.
This being said… we are definitely going to be living with this bastard for a while.