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The second time the Nevada man was infected, he ended up in the hospital with severe breathing difficulties and had to receive oxygen, writes the Los Angeles Times.
According to doctors at the hospital, the man was infected with a different genetic type of coronavirus than the first time, but the result was the same. The belief that infection makes you immune, therefore, does not hold, is the bottom line.
The Nevada man is likely the first in the United States to be diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 virus twice, according to the Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Not in the risk group
At 25 years old and without underlying diseases, he was not in the risk group, nor did he have a weakened immune system as a result of HIV infection or drug or narcotic use.
The man was first diagnosed with the infection in April, but then returned to the hooks after nine days. Two tests in May showed that it was free of infection.
However, on May 28 he felt bad again and on June 5 he ended up in the hospital with serious respiratory problems. There a corona infection was detected again.
Different varieties
The two variants of the virus that were detected in the 25-year-old were not genetically identical, but both belong to a group that has been detected primarily in the US.
Also in Hong Kong, Belgium and Ecuador, corona patients have been re-diagnosed with the infection, after the first test is negative and they recover. Therefore, the researchers conclude that infection is not a guarantee of future immunity.
President Donald Trump, who has now resumed the election campaign after being hospitalized with covid-19, has claimed that he is immune to the virus.
Group immunity
Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell claimed in April that the country could receive herd immunity during May, which has yet to happen. New research also shows that infection is no guarantee of later immunity. Photo: Claudio Bresciani / AP
The researchers’ findings cast further doubt on the herd immunity theory – that the virus can no longer spread when 70 to 80 percent of the population has become infected and supposedly developed immunity.
Among those who have promoted this theory is state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell in Sweden. All in April, he claimed that Sweden could get herd immunity during May, which has yet to happen.
The World Health Organization declared this week that it is unethical to let the coronavirus break free, hoping to develop herd immunity.
“Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy to respond to an outbreak, at least not to a pandemic,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.
I can not trust
– Cases where people are re-infected tell us that we cannot rely on immunity after natural infection should lead to herd immunity. Such a strategy will not only be fatal for many, but it will also not be effective, concludes Akiko Iwasaki, an expert in virology and immunology at Yale University.
The good news is that although one can become infected with different variants of SARS-CoV-2, this does not mean that different vaccines have to be developed for each variant.
– As it seems now, one vaccine is enough to protect against all variants of the virus, says Iwasaki.
