You CAN get COVID-19 twice—and that’s good news!

By Shlomo Maital

Can you get the novel coronavirus twice? Get it, recover, and later get it again?

The answer is yes! And experts tell us, unexpectedly, against the odds, this is good news.

   First the evidence, from Hong Kong and South Korea:

A Hong Kong man has been infected with the novel coronavirus for a second time, researchers at the University of Hong Kong have found.  The patient had been cleared of Covid-19 and was released from hospital in April but tested positive for the virus when he returned from Spain earlier this month. The research team said the findings suggest that Covid-19 immunity does not last for long and “there is evidence that some patients have waning antibody level after a few months.”  The researchers also noted that the two virus strains contracted by the man in April and August were “clearly different.”

A similar report came from South Korea. A patient in South Korea had the virus, recovered, and four months later caught it again. This was verified.

   So this sounds AWFUL, right? Immunity is rather short-lived!

   An Israeli epidemiologist, Dr. Levi, explained on TV why this is actually good news.

     The Korean who got it again was asymptomatic. He was not ill at all. The virus CAN return – but when it does, it meets the body’s defenses, and while they are not air tight, they are strong enough to keep people from getting really sick. Kind of like the common cold, also a corona-type virus. We get colds all the time. There is no vaccine. And we recover fairly quickly.

     The Korean had the virus, twice, and it was detected. But the second time, it did not have much of a punch – not even a weak left jab.

       What we do learn from this, is that this novel coronavirus is going to be part of our lives for a rather long time, maybe forever. We will learn to adapt and live with it. Darwin said that it is not the species best suited for survival that thrive, but the species best able to adapt to rapid unexpected changes in the environment.

   We humans fit that bill. And we will adapt faster than the virus can mutate.