The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Can you contract COVID-19 again?
About seven months ago, the term “COVID-19” became part of our daily vocabulary. Since then, the world has experienced one of the most devastating, arduous and unprecedented times in recent years, and the virus has left its mark on society forever. As we become accustomed to functioning during a pandemic, we must be creative and be willing to delve into new opportunities and experiences. However, we must also ensure that we are adhering to the guidelines distributed by our public health experts, including social distancing and mask wearing.
Unfortunately, the national conversation regarding COVID-19 has become politicized, and this harmful politicization of science poses a threat to the well-being of society. Although public health experts have been working diligently since the beginning of the pandemic, many Americans today are incredulous about the research and data that has been provided, resulting in false beliefs and ignorance about scientific facts: Americans today tend to believe that if you had COVID-19, you can’t get it again.
As colleges and universities across the country prepared to resume on campus activities this fall, I have personally heard several scientific myths regarding COVID-19. Over the summer, I had weekly hangouts with my close friends via Zoom. I recall several different times in which my friends stated that they wanted to “get COVID-19 and get it over with.” This implies that once you are infected with COVID-19, you are unable to contract the virus again.
However, current data may suggest otherwise. In discussions of resuming “normal” daily activities, a controversial issue is whether herd immunity is a viable strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Herd immunity represents a form of protection from a disease that occurs when a large portion of a population has become immune to infection. While some argue that the immunity resulting from COVID-19 is lasting and prevents you from contracting the virus again, others contend that the effects of adaptive immunity are temporary.
On the other hand, credible sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have explicitly stated that there is insufficient evidence supporting either claim. A number of scholars have recently suggested that the levels of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, deplete over time.
Furthermore, the history of science is crucial in guiding scientific research. Research has shown that human coronaviruses are not likely to engender herd immunity. A multiyear study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases conducted on NL63, a globally endemic human coronavirus that causes mild to severe respiratory tract infections, may provide insight regarding the possibility of reinfection of COVID-19. Although human coronaviruses are not as contagious as SARS-CoV-2, there is more known about them because they have affected people around the world for decades and continue to come back. The study indicates that some patients were reinfected anywhere from one to four times and in as little as three months. This suggests several things: the immunity is short term, allowing the possibility of reinfection, and herd immunity is not a viable strategy to end the current pandemic.
As we endure the pandemic, we are learning more about COVID-19 itself. There have been several confirmed reinfections around the world thus far. The first documented reinfection was a man from Hong Kong in August who was reinfected four and a half months after his initial infection. The second confirmed reinfection is a 25year-old man from Nevada who received a positive test result in June after experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19. This positive result came merely several weeks after his first positive result on April 18. Therefore, the cases of reinfection serve as a reminder that we must take the possibility of reinfection seriously.
It has become common in today’s pandemic for individuals to dismiss public health guidelines once they have recovered from a positive test result. While it is true that a COVID-19 infection will provide adaptive immunity, it does not necessarily follow that such immunity prevents reinfection and persists long term. Thus, we must continue adhering to the social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines provided by public health experts in order to protect those around us and ourselves.