The emergence of a handful of individuals reinfected by Covid-19 has sparked panic over the future course of the pandemic.

If humanity plunges into a never-ending cycle of relapses, then a vaccine or partial herd immunity wouldn’t be able to save us https://trib.al/220Tz6Z 

Luckily, we have some good news for you.

For now, there are very few cases of confirmed reinfections, suggesting they may be rare. Some doctors also believe that most relapses will be milder than the first infection https://trib.al/220Tz6Z 

How many individuals develop antibodies and how long do they last?

Some experts worry that only those who suffer the worst cases are able to build up adequate antibodies. If that’s true, those who had mild cases may be more vulnerable to reinfection https://trib.al/220Tz6Z 

A study on the pandemic in Iceland offers some comforting evidence.

The researchers looked at serum samples from 30,576 individuals, using six types of antibody testing https://trib.al/220Tz6Z 

The findings are:

91.1% out of 1,797 recovered Covid-19 patients produced detectable levels of antibodies
These levels hadn’t declined four months after diagnosis
The immune response was higher among older people and those who had the worst symptoms https://trib.al/220Tz6Z 

This is great news for the efficacy of any vaccine and appears to confirm that reinfections may indeed be rare https://trib.al/220Tz6Z 

It’s also theoretically good news for herd immunity, but we’re still a way off. Around 70% of a population may need to have antibodies to effectively stop the virus’s spread.

Less than 1% of the Icelandic population came into contact with the coronavirus https://trib.al/220Tz6Z 

It’s too early to say whether these findings will hold over a longer time period. It’s possible that immunity will fade as time goes by.

But for now, there’s no reason to fear the worst https://trib.al/220Tz6Z