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Scientists Confirm Nevada Man Was Infected Twice With Coronavirus:
A 25-year-old was infected twice with the coronavirus earlier this year, scientists in Nevada have confirmed. It is the first confirmed case of so-called reinfection with the virus in the U.S. and the fifth confirmed reinfection case worldwide.
The cases underscore the importance of social distancing and wearing masks even if you were previously infected with the virus, and they raise questions about how the human immune system reacts to the virus.
The two infections in the Nevada patient occurred about six weeks apart, according to a case study published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet. The patient originally tested positive for the virus in April and had symptoms including a cough and nausea. He recovered and tested negative for the virus in May.
But at the end of May, he went to an urgent care center with symptoms including fever, cough and dizziness. In early June, he tested positive again and ended up in the hospital.
"The second infection was symptomatically more severe than the first," the authors of the study write. The patient survived his second bout with COVID-19.
[...] One of the biggest outstanding questions is how widespread reinfection might be. It's difficult to confirm cases in which a person is infected twice. Scientists must have the nasal swabs from both the first and second infection in order to compare the genomes of both virus samples.
Only the most advanced hospital and laboratory facilities have the equipment and personnel to do the genome sequencing and analyze the results. As a result, most cases of reinfection are likely going undetected.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by shortscreen on Wednesday October 14 2020, @11:53AM (4 children)
It's a bit early to draw sweeping conclusions based on something that happened a whole 5 times worldwide.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 14 2020, @01:42PM
We DoNt KnOw!!1! Lockdown now!
Until the election.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Wednesday October 14 2020, @03:37PM (2 children)
It's happened a few times worldwide that we know of and that have been rigorously proven, which requires non-trivial effort and expense. It has probably happened many more times already where either the data wasn't available to prove it or the effort wasn't expended, and this is after only 6 months or so.
Besides which, Disproof by counterexample requires only a single counter example. You could of course still prove that herd immunity was a viable goal by showing somewhere that has achieved it, but despite many valiant efforts we're still waiting for that one (in contrast several places have shown it can be successfully suppressed, and still others have kept it out completely)...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 14 2020, @09:33PM (1 child)
Having to explain basic science is why this place makes me tired. Thanks for the solid response.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 14 2020, @10:26PM
Arguing against a strawman (infection is impossible) is not basic science.
No one ever thought it was impossible, that wouldn't make any sense and would be counter to everything we know.