# First case of virus reinfection :(



## Ronni (Aug 24, 2020)

“Researchers in Hong Kong on Monday reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, a 33-year-old man who was first infected by SARS-CoV-2 in late March and then, four and a half months later, seemingly contracted the virus again while traveling in Europe.”

Full story here


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## Liberty (Aug 24, 2020)

I bet there's way more of these then we realize.  That's why we truly need a vaccine that works.


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## Aunt Marg (Aug 24, 2020)

Liberty said:


> I bet there's way more of these then we realize.  That's why we truly need a vaccine that works.


I totally agree, Liberty.


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## MarciKS (Aug 24, 2020)

man there's just no stopping this anywhere on the horizon is there?


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## MarciKS (Aug 24, 2020)

i don't know what's fake news & what's not but i've been seeing a lot of stories where fauci is saying the vaccines may not provide the immunity we hope for.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/me...-s-the-latest-on-vaccine-progress/ar-BB16rvcG


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## Liberty (Aug 24, 2020)

Doubt if there would be a lifetime vaccine.  Its a "cold" type virus so reinfection is probably way more common than we realize.  Most are requiring a booster shot and who knows, it might be a yearly thing, like the flu shot is now.


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## Becky1951 (Aug 24, 2020)

MarciKS said:


> i don't know what's fake news & what's not but i've been seeing a lot of stories where fauci is saying the vaccines may not provide the immunity we hope for.
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/me...-s-the-latest-on-vaccine-progress/ar-BB16rvcG



Since this crazy virus doesn't care if its hot or cold weather, we may need to be vaccinated twice yearly.


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## macgeek (Aug 24, 2020)

we have a small family run pizza business near me. one of the employees had covid symptoms but tested negative the other day....  their already having all customers call in orders, wait outside until their pickup time... one person in the store at a time... so their certainly taking all the precautions they can... (I did notice employees were not always wearing a mask all the time)... maybe they will now...

according to some experts, you can't eradicate the corona virus, you can only slow it down. only the elderly/vulnerable people should be quarantined.


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## MarciKS (Aug 24, 2020)

@Becky1951 I always have to worry about adverse reactions because my medication allergy list is a mile long. So I don't know.


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## MarciKS (Aug 24, 2020)

macgeek said:


> we have a smalll family run pizza business near me. one of the employees had covid symptoms but tested negative the other day....  their already having all customers call in orders, wait outside until their pickup time... one person in the store at a time... so their certainly taking all the precautions they can... (I did notice employees were not always wearing a mask all the time)... maybe they will now...


We had an employee actually get COVID. She was out for 6 wks. Only 2 people decided to mask up all the time besides me after that. I should add that I was already masking up all the time. As soon as the mandate came through and the infection control lady allowed us to mask up I was wearing one.


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## Giantsfan1954 (Aug 24, 2020)

My daughter had it twice...


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## Sunny (Aug 24, 2020)

So, is SARS-CoV-2  the same thing as COVID-19?

Ronni, I tried opening your link to read this story, and got a phishing message, telling me my computer was locked, and I should call their phone number to unlock it. I didn't, of course, I just turned the computer off and back on again. I hope I wasn't hacked (again!)

I don't recommend anyone opening that "Full story here" link.


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## Pinky (Aug 24, 2020)

Sunny said:


> So, is SARS-CoV-2  the same thing as COVID-19?
> 
> Ronni, I tried opening your link to read this story, and got a phishing message, telling me my computer was locked, and I should call their phone number to unlock it. I didn't, of course, I just turned the computer off and back on again. I hope I wasn't hacked (again!)
> 
> I don't recommend anyone opening that "Full story here" link.


That's odd. I opened it with no message popping up.


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## Becky1951 (Aug 24, 2020)

Sunny said:


> So, is SARS-CoV-2  the same thing as COVID-19?
> 
> Ronni, I tried opening your link to read this story, and got a phishing message, telling me my computer was locked, and I should call their phone number to unlock it. I didn't, of course, I just turned the computer off and back on again. I hope I wasn't hacked (again!)
> 
> I don't recommend anyone opening that "Full story here" link.



I had no problems opening it.


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## MarciKS (Aug 24, 2020)

Sunny said:


> So, is SARS-CoV-2  the same thing as COVID-19?
> 
> Ronni, I tried opening your link to read this story, and got a phishing message, telling me my computer was locked, and I should call their phone number to unlock it. I didn't, of course, I just turned the computer off and back on again. I hope I wasn't hacked (again!)
> 
> I don't recommend anyone opening that "Full story here" link.


It's an open air attack. You should be fine. They are trying to ransom your computer. You shut it off and didn't do anything so you should be ok. They're playing on your stupidity to see if they can get into your computer. Run your virus scanner but I'm sure your fine. It happened to me once too. I didn't get anything off this particular link though.


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## StarSong (Aug 24, 2020)

I copy & pasted it for you, @Sunny.


*First Covid-19 reinfection documented in Hong Kong, researchers say*

_By_ Andrew Joseph @DrewQJoseph
August 24, 2020


Researchers in Hong Kong on Monday reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, a 33-year-old man who was first infected by SARS-CoV-2 in late March and then, four and a half months later, seemingly contracted the virus again while traveling in Europe.

The case raises questions about the durability of immune protection from the coronavirus. But it was also met with caution by other scientists, who questioned the extent to which the case pointed to broader concerns about reinfection.

There have been scattered reports of cases of Covid-19 reinfection. Those reports, though, have been based on anecdotal evidence and largely attributed to flaws in testing.

But in this case, researchers at the University of Hong Kong sequenced the virus from the patient’s two infections and found that they did not match, indicating the second infection was not tied to the first. There was a difference of 24 nucleotides — the “letters” that make up the virus’ RNA — between the two infections.

“This is the world’s first documentation of a patient who recovered from Covid-19 but got another episode of Covid-19 afterwards,” the researchers said in a statement.

Experts cautioned that this patient’s case could be an outlier among the tens of millions of cases around the world and that immune protection may generally last longer than just a few months. They said that ongoing studies tracking patients who had recovered from Covid-19 would help reach more definitive conclusions.

“There’s been more than 24 million cases reported to date,” Maria Van Kerkhove, a coronavirus expert at the World Health Organization, said at a briefing Monday, when asked about the Hong Kong report. “And we need to look at something like this at a population level.”

The question of how long someone is protected from Covid-19 after being infected and recovering looms large.

Studies are increasingly finding that most people who recover from the illness mount a robust immune response involving both antibodies (molecules that can block the virus from infecting cells again) and T cells (which can help clear the virus). This has suggested that people would be protected from another case for some amount of time.

But based on what happens with other coronaviruses, experts knew that immunity to SARS-CoV-2 would not last forever. People generally become susceptible again to the coronaviruses that cause the common cold after a year or even less, while protection against SARS-1 and MERS appears to last for a few years.

“What we are learning about infection is that people do develop an immune response, and what is not completely clear yet is how strong that immune response is and for how long that immune response lasts,” Van Kerkhove said. She added she was still reviewing the Hong Kong case.


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## StarSong (Aug 24, 2020)

Part 2


The strength and durability of the immune response is also a crucial factor in how long vaccines will be effective for, and for how often people might need a booster dose.

In the Hong Kong case, the man had traveled to Spain and returned to Hong Kong via the United Kingdom. A saliva sample was taken upon arrival in Hong Kong as part of a screening protocol and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Aug. 15.

During his second infection, the man did not have any symptoms. Some patients go through their course of Covid-19 without showing symptoms, but researchers have also hypothesized that secondary cases of the coronavirus will generally be milder than the first. Even if immune systems can’t stop the virus from infecting cells, they might still rally some level of response that keeps us from getting sicker. During his first case, the patient had classic Covid-19 symptoms of cough, fever, sore throat, and headache.

Experts said it was also important to consider the immune response the patient generated after his first infection. While most people seem to mount a solid response, there has been indication that some people do not produce neutralizing antibodies — those that can block the virus from infecting cells — at very high levels, for unclear reasons.

“The fact that somebody may get reinfected is not surprising,” said Malik Peiris, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, who is not an author of the paper describing the reinfection but is familiar with the case. “But the reinfection didn’t cause disease, so that’s the first point. And the second thing is that it is important to know whether the patient mounted a neutralizing antibody response to the first infection or not. Because the vast majority of patients in our experience do mount a good neutralizing antibody response. So is this person an outlier or is he likely to be the average person infected?”

Even if the Hong Kong case is an outlier, it points to a few implications: For one, people who have recovered from Covid-19 should also be vaccinated, the researchers said. And they should continue following precautions like wearing a mask and physical distancing.


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## Sunny (Aug 24, 2020)

Thanks, Marci and Star.


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## MarciKS (Aug 24, 2020)

That was nice of you Star. Sorry I didn't even think about doing that.


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## Ronni (Aug 24, 2020)

Sunny said:


> So, is SARS-CoV-2  the same thing as COVID-19?
> 
> Ronni, I tried opening your link to read this story, and got a phishing message, telling me my computer was locked, and I should call their phone number to unlock it. I didn't, of course, I just turned the computer off and back on again. I hope I wasn't hacked (again!)
> 
> I don't recommend anyone opening that "Full story here" link.


Damn @Sunny I’m sorry.  let me see if I can replace the link.


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## Sunny (Aug 24, 2020)

Thanks, Ronni. It apparently only happened to me. So far, no damage detected.


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## StarSong (Aug 24, 2020)

MarciKS said:


> That was nice of you Star. Sorry I didn't even think about doing that.


No worries, Marci.  As long as one of us gets to it, it's all good.  This time it was my turn.


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## gennie (Aug 24, 2020)

If my understanding of vaccinations is accurate, a true vaccine for it may not be possible.  A vaccine actually *is* the virus in a minute quantity and it gives us immunity.

The reason we have to take the common flu vaccine every year is because that virus keeps mutating.  How it mutates each year is a guessing game for the researchers.  The vaccine we get is their best guess of which strain will be common.

If having Covid once does not provide immunity, that places it in a whole new category.  Remember this:  HIV is a virus and there is still no effective vaccine for that.

Sorry to be a downer.


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## StarSong (Aug 24, 2020)

Vaccines are often dead viruses or incomplete bits of genetic material.  Enough to stimulate the immune system but incapable of creating the illness itself.


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## MarciKS (Aug 24, 2020)

StarSong said:


> Vaccines are often dead viruses or incomplete bits of genetic material.  Enough to stimulate the immune system but incapable of creating the illness itself.


From what I've been reading I think they're trying to come up with meds to give instead. I just can't remember where I read it. They're studying interferons to see if they can use those to stop the acute respiratory thing that takes over. It's been a while so I don't know if I can find the link or not. I'll try.


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## Sunny (Aug 24, 2020)

Ronni, just wanted to tell you that it had nothing to do with your link. The same hokey error message popped up when I was looking at something completely different. I googled the error message, and of course it is a scam. They want me to call their phone number, and probably sell me something, or get into my computer somehow. So I'm glad I didn't call the number.

But I guess I have a virus on my phone that is going to keep making that screen pop up (it freezes my computer, and the only way to get rid of it is to turn off the computer completely), and this will keep happening until I get rid of it. I will call Norton tomorrow and see if they can help.


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## bingo (Aug 24, 2020)

the covid from China mutated in Europe...two strains


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## Lewkat (Aug 24, 2020)

I wish I'd kept the article as I recently read that virologists have emphatically proved that if one has had the virus in a mild or moderate form they are immune for life.  It also stated that in the event of a re infection, the virus lay dormant for a period and re infected the individual.  This was attributed to a weakened immune system.  There are so many ifs, ands and buts out there, that I didn't bother to keep it.  I guess anything can happen.  It is still early in the game to say too many definites about this particular strain of corona.


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## MarciKS (Aug 24, 2020)

This virus is just nuts. There's too many unknowns & it's anybody's guess as to what might be accurate. Some of the info has changed over the course of 6 mo.


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## AnnieA (Aug 24, 2020)

Liberty said:


> I bet there's way more of these then we realize.  That's why we truly need a vaccine that works.



Natural antibodies produced by infection are superior to vaccine antibodies.   Re-infection in a matter of months doesn't bode well for a successful vaccine.


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## PopsnTuff (Aug 25, 2020)

Two more cases of reinfection were reported, this time in Europe.....
Two more cases of reinfection with the coronavirus were reported in Europe on Tuesday, a day after a 33-year-old man in Hong Kong was confirmed to have been infected a second time.

In all three cases, researchers compared genetic material from both rounds of infection and confirmed that the patients were not just carrying remnants of dead virus left over from the first illness.....read on.....

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/world/covid-19-coronavirus.html#link-f61c099


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