The research was carried out throughout houses and hospitals in Kilifi County, Kenya, the place researchers tracked the circulation of a number of coronaviruses all through the group over a span of six years. The primary related discovering was that some sufferers weren’t reinfected simply as soon as, however twice. One individual even contracted the virus 4 occasions. This tells us that immunity to HCoV-NL63 was short-lived — a lot in order that some had been reinfected inside as little as three months.
The truth is, researchers within the NL63 research postulated that the excessive antibody ranges in a few of the Kenya sufferers elevated the probability of an infection relatively than stopping or mitigating it — an final result that defies the extra basic expectation {that a} sturdy immune response would imply larger safety from reinfection. These circumstances recommend that nobody who contracts a coronavirus, whatever the nature of their main an infection, is completely protected from reinfection.
The third important discovering is that in six years, herd immunity to HCoV-NL63 was by no means acquired, and the virus continued to persist for your entire length of the research. Granted, endemic human coronaviruses aren’t as contagious as SARS-CoV-2, however they have been infecting folks all over the world for many years and at all times handle to return again. Even when SARS-CoV-2 does turn out to be an endemic human coronavirus like HCoV-NL63, we can’t be rid of the risks it presents to susceptible populations — except we now have a extensively used vaccine that may give us the safety our pure immune response can not.
It’s in our greatest curiosity to acknowledge the chance of reinfection — relatively than holding out hope for herd immunity — when considering of the scientific and public well being interventions we’ll want within the months and years to return. We should place the majority of our efforts on creating and equitably distributing a vaccine that’s not solely protected and efficient, however attendant to the potential of reinfection. We should redouble our efforts to stage evidence-based public well being interventions till a vaccine is offered. In any other case, it is going to be a very long time earlier than we have seen the final of Covid-19 — and never lengthy in any respect earlier than we’re bested by one other deadly coronavirus as soon as extra.
