The Mutations that Caused Covid-19 Reinfection Explained
And what does it mean for our natural or artificial (vaccination) immunity? [Updated September]
Recent headlines declared the world’s first proven case of Covid-19 reinfection in Hong Kong. It is said as proven because researchers showed that a different strain of SARS-CoV-2 caused the second infection, rather than the initial virus that persists in the body.
On the same day, coincidentally, there are two other reports of Covid-19 reinfections — an elderly in the Netherlands and a middle-aged woman in Belgium — but their details are lacking. Recurrent positive RT-PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 occurs at about 10% of the time, which may also be due to reinfections, false positive, persistent infection, or lingering viral fragments.
So, there may have already been more than one reinfection event. The big question is what do Covid-19 reinfections mean for our immunity? Note that immunity can be acquired naturally (via recovery from the disease) or artificially (via vaccines).
Key aspects of the research paper detailing the Covid-19 reinfection case
The Hong Kong case is described in a paper, titled “COVID-19 reinfection by a phylogenetically…
