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This is a false, irresponsible statement by the WHO, which will panic people in the name of not raising false hope. I will reply to this thread with evidence that infection confers at least temporary immunity https://twitter.com/MackayIM/status/1254004568758693889">https://twitter.com/MackayIM/...
Experimentally infected macaques were protected against challenge: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.13.990226v1">https://www.biorxiv.org/content/1...
All those reports of "reinfection" you& #39;ve heard were either resurgent infections or bad tests: https://twitter.com/RELenski/status/1253421497172946954">https://twitter.com/RELenski/...
Recovered individuals have neutralizing antibodies: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.20047365v2">https://www.medrxiv.org/content/1...
Convalescent plasma therapy seems to work, which suggests that neutralizing antibodies made by recovered individuals are effective in vivo: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/02/2004168117.short">https://www.pnas.org/content/e...
In short: are we *100% sure* yet that an epidemiologically meaningful percentage of recovered people develop protective immunity? No, of course not. Is there evidence? Yes, there& #39;s evidence. (end)
Addendum: and no, this immunity may not last forever, but for a variety of reasons it is likely to last long enough to matter epidemiologically
Just gonna throw this essay on the end here, as it seems relevant http://dylanhmorris.com/post/false-certainty/">https://dylanhmorris.com/post/fals...
Another addendum: some people feel I should be criticizing the Reuters headline rather than the WHO statement. The statement is intended as a warning against "immunity passports"—a measure I& #39;m also very leery of. But the exact line is still false and misleading...
"There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection". Really can& #39;t say "no" when you mean "insufficient", or you& #39;ll get headlines like the Reuters one. Can& #39;t blame journos https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/immunity-passports-in-the-context-of-covid-19">https://www.who.int/news-room...
Seriously, you can& #39;t just blame the journalists
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1253995619921821698">https://twitter.com/WHO/statu...
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1253995619921821698">https://twitter.com/WHO/statu...
Update: the @WHO has issued a very helpful clarification. Grateful that they are taking this seriously. https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1254160937805926405">https://twitter.com/WHO/statu...
