While some European countries are setting up deconfinement strategies, scientists keep on working hard to know more about Covid-19 and try and find factors of immunity to this virus.
As a matter of fact, many questions remain without an answer: after being infected once by coronavirus, then completely recovered, are we totally immune? If so, for how long? As of today, the WHO – World Health Organization – isn’t sure people infected by Covid-19 developed antibodies and are then totally immune to the virus.
“With regards to recovery and then reinfection, I believe we do not have the answers to that. That is an unknown,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program, said at a press conference this April 13th.
"One would expect that a person who generates a full-blown immune response with detectable antibodies should have protection for a period of time," Ryan said. "We just don't know what that period of time is. We would expect that to be a reasonable period of protection, but it is very difficult to say that with a new virus."
As of today, immunity to coronavirus still relies on numerous questions and the WHO doesn’t guaranteed people who already have had Covid-19 then cured cannot be infected again. There’s also the question about developing antibodies. By the way, Germany launched, a few days ago, a gigantic study about immunity to covid-19.
Interviewed this April 12th by Franceinfo, Eric Vivier from the Immunology Center Marseille-Luminy and member of the Academy of Medicine said: “we generally see those sero-neutralizing antibodies appear within two to three weeks, but we may have to wait for longer sometimes”.
On Monday April 13, South Korea Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha acknowledged patients who have had Covid-19 and considered “completely recovered” have been “tested positive again a few days later”.
