The risk of 2nd infection of COVID-19 is ten times lower than 1st time

The risk of 2nd infection of COVID-19 is ten times lower than 1st time.  Journal of the American Medical Association: The risk of secondary infection of the new coronavirus is ten times lower than the first time.

Will patients with new coronavirus pneumonia get infected again after they recover? There have been dozens of reports of secondary infections around the world, but the overall number of cases is very small. According to a report on the CNN website, a recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association of Internal Medicine showed that the risk of secondary infections after recovery from patients with the new coronavirus is greatly reduced, which may be 10 times less than the first infection.

According to Dr. Douglas Lowy, the chief deputy director of the National Cancer Institute, most patients develop serum antibodies against the virus after recovery, which lasts for several months and gradually declines over time. Understanding the status of serum antibodies is essential for guiding public health policies. It will affect individual epidemic prevention measures, and it is also of great significance for guiding the order of vaccination and ultimately forming social group immunity.

The National Cancer Institute and a number of companies collected data on 3.2 million people in the United States. They had tested for new coronavirus antibodies between January and August last year. Among them, 11.6% of people tested positive for new coronavirus pneumonia antibodies, and 88.3% The test was negative.

In the follow-up data, it was found that only 0.3% of people who tested positive for the new coronavirus pneumonia antibody test were positive for viral nucleic acid after 90 days. Among those with negative antibody test results, 3% were infected by the new coronavirus, a 10-fold difference.

Lowy emphasized that this study is observational and can only show that positive antibody testing is associated with a low risk of infection within 90 days. It is hard to say whether the 10-fold gap is too much or too little. We need more research to determine the causal relationship between the two, and how long this antibody can provide protection. At present, mutants of the new coronavirus have appeared in many regions, and it is also necessary to understand the impact of antibodies on the mutants.

Dr. Mitchell Katz of New York City’s “Health+Hospital” healthcare system commented that most patients recovering from COVID-19 will develop antibodies, and their risk of secondary infections seems to be very small. However, the duration of antibody protection after natural infection is unclear, so regardless of whether the antibody is negative or positive, the new coronavirus pneumonia vaccine must be vaccinated.

The duration of antibody protection provided by the vaccine may be longer, but it is still unknown. In general, the duration of antibodies produced by natural infection or vaccination requires a longer period of observation to verify.

(source:internet, reference only)

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