(The Guardian, May 27, 2020):
A medical study in France suggests even mild cases of coronavirus infection, not requiring hospital treatment, produce antibodies in almost all patients, with the body’s defences against the virus increasing during the weeks of recovery. The research, led by a team from the Pasteur Institute, raises hopes that everyone who has had the disease could acquire some degree of immunity, although it is not clear for how long or to what degree.
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(The Jerusalem Post, May 28, 2020):
“COVID-19 immunity lasts only six months, reinfection possible - study”
Getting re-infected by the novel coronavirus could be possible within six months of recovery, according to a new study published by a team in Amsterdam. If that is the case, then Israel’s hope of testing 1 million Israelis for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 partially to keep the economy open in any subsequent rounds may be shattered.
A team of 13 researchers from the country located in the Western Netherlands recently uploaded a paper to Medrxiv, an internet site that distributes unpublished manuscripts about health sciences, after monitoring 10 subjects who had contracted at least one of four species of seasonal coronaviruses over a time span of 35 years (1985 to 2020). In “Human coronavirus reinfection dynamics: lessons for SARS‐CoV‐2,” they claim that “an alarmingly short duration of protective immunity to coronaviruses was found… We saw frequent reinfections at 12 months post‐infection and substantial reduction in antibody levels as soon as 6 months …”
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(New York Magazine, May 27, 2020):
“Here’s the Latest Good (and Bad) News About the Coronavirus”
Coronavirus patients cease to be infectious two weeks after developing symptoms. This was already conventional wisdom. But a new study from Singapore fortifies the consensus by finding that 100 percent of its 73 observed coronavirus sufferers ceased to have a viable virus in their bodies 11 days after the onset of symptoms.
… The coronavirus’s mutations don’t appear to have made it more infectious.
Viruses evolve constantly. And SARS-CoV-2 is no exception: According to researchers at University College London (UCL), the novel coronavirus has produced 273 mutations; of these, 31 have become prevalent. One nightmare scenario for SARS-CoV-2 is that it will evolve into something even more lethal and infectious, as the 1918 influenza virus did before its devastating second wave. Fortunately, a new study from UCL indicates that none of the 31 prevalent mutations of the novel coronavirus are more virulent than the original brand. …
… The evidence that people who contract the coronavirus develop immunity-conferring antibodies is steadily growing. Last week’s roundup included multiple studies indicating that COVID-19 survivors develop neutralizing antibodies and thus face no immediate risk of reinfection (how long such immunity lasts remains unclear). Now, a study of 160 French doctors and nurses who contracted mild cases of COVID-19 finds that 159 possessed neutralizing antibodies 41 days after showing symptoms. This is significant because many have feared that mild cases of COVID-19 might be insufficient to confer immunity. …
… Herd immunity will take a lot more time and death to achieve than Sweden had hoped. … Things aren’t working out as planned. The Swedish economy has suffered roughly as severe a downturn as that of Denmark. And in recent days, it’s had the highest per-capita coronavirus death rate in Europe. Until last week, defenders of the Swedish strategy could still argue that it might pay off eventually: The policy was never intended to minimize coronavirus deaths in the immediate term, after all. And if keeping things open gets Sweden to herd immunity faster than other countries do, then the strategy could yield an aberrantly high fatality rate in the early months of the pandemic but an exceptionally low one over its full duration. Unfortunately for Sweden - and for anyone hoping America’s reopenings will get us to herd immunity in short order - a recent study of residents in Stockholm found that just 7.3 percent of people in the Swedish city possessed COVID-19 antibodies in late April. …
… In the developing world, young people are dying from COVID-19 at unprecedented rates. In wealthy countries, COVID-19 deaths have been overwhelmingly concentrated among the old. But as the novel coronavirus gains ground in less prosperous places, fatality rates are rising among the young. … this alarming trend appears more attributable to grotesque international inequalities than to any viral mutation: Due to high levels of extreme poverty and underfunded health systems, many young people who would recover from COVID-19 with proper medical care are dying in the developing world without it. …
… Even as America reopens, half of its states have uncontrolled coronavirus spread. A study from the Imperial College of London suggests that 24 U.S. states have an R higher than one - meaning that, on average, every person infected with the novel coronavirus gives the bug to at least one other person. Meanwhile, a separate, peer-reviewed study published in Health Affairs indicates that areas of the U.S. that refused to impose social-distancing orders saw 35 times greater spread of the novel coronavirus than those that did implement such orders. …
… On a global level, the daily count of new coronavirus infections is as high as it’s ever been. Worldwide, the number of new, confirmed coronavirus cases is growing by about 100,000 a day, which is the highest sustained rate of new infections we’ve seen since the pandemic began.
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(New York Times, May 28, 2020):
“Coronavirus Pandemic’s Spread Quickens: Live Coverage”
“Even as countries move to reopen, the pandemic is growing at a faster pace.”
The coronavirus pandemic’s pace is quickening worldwide, with nearly 700,000 new known infections reported in the last week after the pathogen found greater footholds in Latin America and the Gulf states. …
… The increases in some countries can be attributed to improved testing programs. In others, though, it appears that the virus has only now arrived with wide scope and fatal force. … Outbreaks have accelerated especially sharply in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, with caseloads doubling in some countries about every two weeks. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said it considered the Americas to be the new epicenter of the pandemic. And although much of the Middle East seemed to avert early catastrophe even as the virus ravaged Iran, case counts have lately been swelling in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. …
… new studies suggest that even in some of the world’s hardest-hit cities, the vast majority of people remain vulnerable to the virus. Researchers said it is possible that percentage of people who have been infected so far is still in single digits. …
… In the United States, where the virus death toll has surpassed 100,000, large-scale testing did not happen as the virus spread with ferocity from late January to early March. The result was a lost month, when the world’s richest country - armed with some of the best-trained scientists and infectious disease specialists - missed a chance to contain the virus’s spread. But even countries that have provided ample testing have not escaped second-wave infections.
