Man gets Covid twice with second infection much more severe

[Chickenandrice]

Article in bbc. He is young -only 25. It does say reinfection is rare and let’s hope that remains the case. This virus has so many unknowns associated with it we just don’t know much about it all yet.

@NightmareLoon

It really depends on what the vaccine is designed from, the Oxford group vaccine is based on a chimp adenovirus, with the Covid protein spike inserted in. Their previous adenovirus vaccine for SARS gives long-lasting antibodies.

Ok that’s interesting

@Reallybadidea ah ok (don't fully understand that but get the gist!)

There will still be claiming to have had it twice where it's not been clinically proven is I guess what I meant.

I'm sure we're about to have multiple posters claiming to have to for the second time shortly anyway.

"reinfection cases tell us that we cannot rely on immunity acquired by natural infection to confer herd immunity; not only is this strategy lethal for many but also it is not effective. Herd immunity requires safe and effective vaccines and robust vaccination implementation."
www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30783-0/fulltext

@boobot1

Maybe the first was a false positive, they are common

The way they know it was a second infection was different DNA to the first. Which suggests they weren't wrong about the first.

My sister has covid in April (test confirmed as she was a ward sister on a covid ward) she’s now joined a study and is having weekly antibody tests. She still has antibodies 6 months later as confirmed last week. So I don’t think the immunity does only last 6-8 weeks for all.

@boobot1

Maybe the first was a false positive, they are common

They are not common when testing people who have symptoms: medium.com/*@gidmk*/most-positive-coronavirus-tests-are-true-positives-60c95fe54fec

For random population testing, you can ensure positives are accurate by double or triple checking, which is what is done with the ONS survey for example.

But in this particular case they were able to do genomic sequencing on the RNA from both tests, so cannot have been a false positive.

He's not the first. I very much doubt he will be the last
He's one of 5 officially recorded in the whole WORLD. It's hardly common

@TeddyIsaHe

My sister has covid in April (test confirmed as she was a ward sister on a covid ward) she’s now joined a study and is having weekly antibody tests. She still has antibodies 6 months later as confirmed last week. So I don’t think the immunity does only last 6-8 weeks for all.

But it is a fair question, in light of recent news, to ask what version of Covid they are immune to ?

"So I don’t think the immunity does only last 6-8 weeks for all."

Possibly there may be an average duration of immunity, with a wide range. So it's possible most people would have immunity for a year or so for example, but then you would have a small minority who were far outside that range (much shorter or much longer).

Or some people (a minority) may not produce antibodies after an initial infection or may not produce enough to protect from reinfection?

He's one of 5 officially recorded in the whole WORLD. It's hardly common

Yes, confirmed reinfections are very rare so far, but also need to keep in mind that it's quite an involved process. Need to have access to the results from both positive tests and then need to do the genomic sequencing to confirm two different strains.

Due to lack of testing, many people won't even have had a positive test to confirm their initial infection, so if they did think they were reinfected it would be impossible to prove. And the initial infection may not even have been covid.

But likely to be a lot more instances of reinfection than officially recorded due to difficulty of proving reinfection and numbers are likely to increase over time.

I am not sure why people are saying getting it twice is 'rare'. I have a family member who is an A&E nurse. She has seen it happen many times. She herself is convinced she had it twice but the first time she had it was back at the first week of lockdown when they weren't testing unless you were admitted to hospital. She had it again in June, more severely than the first time.

I think it's more common than people think.

I expect reinfections will become increasingly normal. What’s more concerning is that this man has been more severely affected the second time round.

Well I know someone who has definately had it twice (he works for the NHS), the first time he was pretty ill but not hospital admission, the second time was milder.

So few people wer tested at the start of the pandemic I rally do;t think they can say that it's only 5 people.

There is a big gap between what is happening and what is being "officially confirmed" as happening with this virus.

And I dont mean that in a conspiracy theory way, more in a lack of data/lack of resource/busy dealing with a pandemic here ask us again in 3 years sort of way.

Reinfection will be mn's new Long Covid I can see it now...

How do you know if it is a new infection or a re emergence of the original infection which was never 100% recovered from ?

@awstree

How do you know if it is a new infection or a re emergence of the original infection which was never 100% recovered from ?

Because of the science as reported ?

@awstree

How do you know if it is a new infection or a re emergence of the original infection which was never 100% recovered from ?

The genetic codes of the virus taken during each positive period were proven to be caused by different infections.

@Qasd

If this is true herd immunity with a vaccine is a massive gamble!

Basically this is either a rare specific case or were all fucked including the “oh just lockdown until a vaccine” group..remember if the body has such an ineffective immune response to the virus they can become reinfected after two months then really there is nothing for vaccine developers to mimic.

According to this Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology that is not the case. Hopefully she is correct.

www.independent.co.uk/health_and_wellbeing/coronavirus-vaccine-immunity-infection-covid-b575224.html

@awstree at the moment there are only a few cases known where live virus has been proven to remain in the body. The general medical line atm (given all the usual disclaimers) is that it does not.

In the cases where reinfection has been proven, they've sequenced the virus genome to prove reinfection rather than persistent infection.

@Belle0705 it's certainly going to put a crimp in the "fuck lock up the vulnerable and let us take it in the chin" brigade.

I have an extended family member infected twice 5 months apart. I think it’s happening a lot but under radar as young, mildly affected and get mild symptoms. My guess is young will prove to be a reservoir for this virus. It amazes me people say only handful of cases. What you mean to say is a handful of cases sequenced and documented.

@SqidgeBum

I am not sure why people are saying getting it twice is 'rare'. I have a family member who is an A&E nurse. She has seen it happen many times. She herself is convinced she had it twice but the first time she had it was back at the first week of lockdown when they weren't testing unless you were admitted to hospital. She had it again in June, more severely than the first time.

I think it's more common than people think.

How would an A&E nurse have special insights into'many' confirmed covid reinfections?

And since the symptoms of covid mimic those of many common respiratory illnesses, how can she be sure she had covid twice unless she was tested positive on two separate occasions?