laundryandtaxes:

solarbird:

laundryandtaxes:

'No Evidence' That Recovered COVID-19 Patients Are Immune, WHO Says

The World Health Organization warned against "immunity passports," which allow travel only to recovered patients, saying studies must first

NPR.org

DON’T spread this, it was a badly quoted report, there’s no proof of lifetime immunity but that’s very different to “no resistance” which is how this is being taken. There is considerable evidence of typical immunity to the specific strain you caught before.

It’s not badly quoted. The WHO wanted to be clear that there is no proof that infection confers immunity even for a short time, because there is no proof- that doesn’t mean it’s not true! Just that we don’t have evidence of it yet, and that banking on antibody tests as some important bit of data even when they’re accurate is not a scientifically supported approach. I know of one study in which monkeys were made sick with this coronavirus, allowed to get better, and then injected with it again 3 weeks later, with them showing no symptoms the second time. That’s promising for immunity in people but it’s not proof, and some people make very low levels of the necessary antibodies even after infection. I personally think it probably does confer immunity for a while- the milder coronaviruses that cause the common cold are like that for a little while, and apparently the serious ones that cause MERS can confer immunity for several years. We just don’t know that to be true about this one yet.