[imagesource: CNN]

We are still some way off a vaccine for COVID-19 being found.

The general timeline is anywhere from a year to 18 months, although others warn it could take longer.

Sadly, even then, many would choose not to take the vaccine.

Until such a day arrives, there has been much talk about herd immunity, which clearly didn’t work in the UK, despite its best efforts.

That theory was further upended when reports emerged of people who had recovered from the coronavirus testing positive once more, but thankfully that appears now to be impossible.

Sky News reporting below:

Researchers at the South Korean centre for disease control and prevention (CDC) now say it is impossible for the COVID-19 virus to reactivate in human bodies…

A total of 277 patients in the country were believed to have fallen ill for a second time, as had patients in China and Japan.

This prompted concerns that the virus could be mutating so quickly that people were not necessarily immune to catching it again.

However, genetic analyses of the virus have not found any substantial changes which would effectively disguise it from the immune system.

Following those initial reinfection reports, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned countries about allowing people to return to work after recovering from the coronavirus.

What is now becoming clearer, at least in the results of the South Korean study, is that the test results for the suspected relapsed patients were false positives:

…the test it used was not able to distinguish between live traces of the virus and the harmless dead samples which remain after patients have recovered…

The CDC added that unlike other viruses, such as HIV and chickenpox – which can break into the nucleus of human cells and stay latent for years before reactivating – the coronavirus stays outside of the host cell’s nucleus.

“This means it does not cause chronic infection or recurrence,” explained Dr Oh Myoung-don, the head of the CDC committee, meaning it is unlikely for patients to relapse in this fashion.

Well, that’s one bit of good news amongst the rubble.

Let’s hear from the World Health Organisation’s technical lead, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, while we’re at it:

Given how fluid the situation is, and how much about the coronavirus scientists still don’t know, I guess things could change.

For now, at least, it looks like just the one bout of the coronavirus for those who become infected.

Small victories.

[source:skynews]