Posted on by Californiacontrarian

My Basic Question

From the beginning of this Wuhan virus pandemic, I have had a simple basic question … “Does having a documented Covid infection protect that individual from getting Covid a second time?” My suspicion has been, “yes, but not 100%, as nothing is 100%. For many months during the Spring of 2020, I was only able to read about a single documented reinfection in an individual with an initial Covid infection, documented by testing. That particular individual was a bike racer somewhere in the Middle East, possibly Dubai. Anyway he had a test-documented case of Covid. When felt better, he was subsequently retested and was negative, and he then began to get back into bike racing circuit. Before each subsequent bike race over a period of many months as per protocol, he was tested multiple times – all negative. Then out of the blue before a race, he tested positive, and retested … still positive. At that point he had mild respiratory symptoms which resolved in a day or two. 

To me, this sounded like a documented Covid reinfection, but I have not read about the likelihood of a Covid reinfection until I just read this piece by Dr. Marty Makary in the WSJ:

“More than 64% have received at least one vaccine dose and, of those who haven’t, roughly half have natural immunity from prior infection. There’s ample scientific evidence that natural immunity is effective and durable, and public-health leaders should pay it heed.

“Only around 10% of Americans have had confirmed positive Covid tests, but four to six times as many have likely had the infection. A February study in Nature used antibody screenings in late summer 2020 to estimate there had been seven times as many actual cases as confirmed cases.

“Natural immunity is durable. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis reported last month that 11 months after a mild infection immune cells were still capable of producing protective antibodies. The authors concluded that prior Covid infection induces a “robust” and “long-lived humoral immune response,” leading some scientists to suggest that natural immunity is probably lifelong.

A study found only three confirmed re-infections in the entire state, 

of Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, whose population exceeds four million. Other studies have confirmed that re-infections are rare and usually asymptomatic or mild.

“Some health officials warn of possible variants resistant to natural immunity. But none of the hundreds of variants observed so far have evaded either natural or vaccinated immunity with the three vaccines authorized in the U.S.

So my basic question appears to have been answered. 

Just one more basic question:

“Should the previously infected be vaccinated?”

Dr. Makary’s answer, 

“My clinical advice to healthy patients with natural immunity is that one shot is sufficient, and maybe not even necessary, although it could increase the long-term durability of immunity.” (emphasis is mine)

From now on I am going to pay much less attention to Dr. Fauci and much more attention to Dr. Makary as he is actually seeing patients, something the Dr. Fauci has not done in a very very long time!

To me this brings up the topic of schools, masks, etc. It is known that children typically get only mild, if any, symptoms with Covid, so why not “encourage” young children to get that mild form of this disease by doing away with masks, spatial distancing, etc in schools. According to what we know about natural immunity, perhaps this could be an easier way for our country to achieve herd immunity.

[FYI in my book, “The Keneally Chronicles,” (available on Amazon), this is exactly what a small town in the Southwest did.]

8/4/21

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