Recovery from the coronavirus “will NOT prevent people from having it again,” warns Sir Patrick Vallance – The Irish Sun

4 4

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance today revealed that those recovering from the coronavirus are not exempt from contracting the deadly disease again.

So far in the UK there have been more than 28,000 deaths from the virus and more than 191,000 confirmed cases across the country.

⚠️ Read our coronavirus blog live for the latest news and updates

4 4

Appearing today in front of the Health and Social Assistance Committee, Sir Patrick admitted that the government was still unclear about the levels of immunity in those who already had the virus.

Speaking at the Zoom meeting chaired by Jeremy Hunt, he said: “Everything suggests that you can get neutralizing antibodies, those are antibodies that protect against the disease.

“So you would expect some degree of protection against the antibodies. We don’t know if it provides absolute immunity and almost certainly it will not, it will provide some degree of protection.”

“The other thing we don’t know is whether it is still possible to carry the virus even if you have antibodies.”

“So it’s more about whether you can still be infectious to someone else rather than whether you’re protected against it.”

Based on the lifespan of other viruses, he said the time frame for immunity can last from one to three years, but not for “many years.”

Levels of coronavirus infection differ from county to county in the UK, and places such as densely populated cities like London are one of the hardest hit areas, as well as other regions like the North West also have high case rates.

4 4

4 4

Sir Patrick also added that the current information the government has is on the “state of the antibodies” rather than how people develop immunity against the disease.

He went on to explain that there would be a variation in antibody levels across the country, saying there is around 10 percent antibody positivity in London, while other locations reach around 4 percent.

Sir Patrick reiterated that current knowledge revolves around “antibody status” rather than immunity, explaining that there will be a variation in antibody levels across the country.

He said he would not expect to see antibody levels well above mid-adolescence.

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, it was revealed that the government had previously discussed the London blockade first to stem the spread of the virus.

When asked whether the antibody data would mean that each region of the UK was treated the same, he said that “there was nothing to suggest that you should treat different regions differently.”

“There may be other reasons, such as local prevalence, but as I said, that carries complexities. In terms of population vulnerability, you would have to reach levels higher than those that suggest that a place had a vastly different protection environment than yet another one from the population’s antibody, and we still don’t know exactly how much protection the antibody status provides. “

His comments on today’s committee come after Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van Tam said last night that preliminary evidence showed that overall Covid-19 sufferers are developing antibodies to the virus, but reiterated that it did not show whether No they were immune to the virus.

Speaking at the daily press conference number 10 the night before, he said: “One of the things we want to know is: when you have had Covid-19, you get antibodies, they protect you against other cases of the same disease and for how long? time will they protect you? “

So far, tests have shown that “the overwhelming majority of people who have definitely had Covid-19 infection have antibodies in their bloodstream, which is a good thing,” he explained.

Ultimately, he said, it could take scientists “years” to get enough data to conclusively determine how long the antibodies last.