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1. Back in February I repeatedly raised concerns about immunity to #COVID19
In March, when the UK government started discussing herd immunity I wondered what the government’s scientific advisers were thinking. Immunity to coronaviruses is temporary at best.
In March, when the UK government started discussing herd immunity I wondered what the government’s scientific advisers were thinking. Immunity to coronaviruses is temporary at best.
2. This isn’t new information, it’s established science. We know human coronaviruses (HCoVs) reinfect regularly. This was recently confirmed by the team at Columbia University who found short interval reinfection was more common than expected.
http://www.columbia.edu/~jls106/galanti_shaman_ms_supp.pdf
http://www.columbia.edu/~jls106/galanti_shaman_ms_supp.pdf
3. We know immunity to SARS and MERS is temporary. We know there have been questions about immunity to #SARSCoV2 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2766097
4. There are more and more reports of people struggling with long term symptoms of COVID19 infection. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/covid-19-coronavirus-longterm-symptoms-months/612679/
5. If the science behind this pre-print proves sound, it will have profound implications for those who have assumed long-term immunity to #SARSCoV2 and who have been formulating public health policy on that basis. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.13.20130252v1
6. Other studies have come to similar conclusions, which is why I see no reason to doubt this most recent pre-print. https://twitter.com/prussw1/status/1273408244942340096
7. Some scientists equate infectiousness with harmfulness. They believe since the virus can’t be cultured from long-term or reinfected patients, it can’t be causing the repeat or continued symptoms.
8. Ebola enters a state of low replication persistence in privilege immune sites and causes inflammatory responses even after the virus has ostensibly cleared the body. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6291550/
9. Dr Marc Desforges and his team believe HCoVs are capable of entering a similar low replication state in the central nervous system. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31861926/
10. Governments are taking significant risks allowing the spread of this virus without fully understanding how it behaves and what it does. @devisridhar is right to ask why not get rid of it altogether? https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1272613760058961928
11. The only argument against eradication has always been an economic one. That’s why air travel wasn’t stopped in January and lockdowns weren’t introduced in February. Certain governments believed they could ignore the problem and protect their economies.
12. With one of the worst mortality rates in the world and one of the most damaged economies, the UK is a case study in the folly of such thinking. https://www.ft.com/content/d936d27f-9e2b-4e6a-91f4-3940d6bf64cb
13. If we can’t develop long-term immunity to #SARSCoV2 and a significant proportion of people suffer long-term consequences of infection, the economic cost will be high. Not to mention the toll in human misery.
14. I urge policy makers not to make assumptions about immunity when formulating policy. Scientists need more time to develop a better understanding. And I would like to see more emphasis on providing support for long-term #COVID19 patients.
15. If you’re suffering long-term consequences of COVID19, this site has some useful information and links to long term support groups. https://www.c19recoveryawareness.com/
