People recovered from COVID-19 are not protected against second infection: WHO

The World Health Organization has declared that there is no evidence that patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies in them are protected against a second infection called ‘immunity passports.’

“We do not have the answers to that — it’s an unknown,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Emergencies Program said in a press conference this week when asked how long a recovered COVID-19 patient would have immunity.

A study from China about rhesus monkey not getting reinfecting when exposed to the virus is yet to be reexamined and confirmed. As this is just a month old experiment so nothing can be assessed as yet were the views of Pasteur Institute researcher Frederic Tangy. Then South Korea has reinfection of some patients who had recovered from COVID-19.

Director of the genetics institute at university college London Francois Ballou expressed that chances are that the virus is like herpes and remains dormant as s “chronic infection” and does not completely disappear.

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The possibility exists that the results of the test are not accurate and the patients tested “false negative” and in the first place patient had not got rid of the virus. This scenario is not the ideal one according to Ballou.

Questions are raised about the study that verified the concentration of different antibodies of 175 recovered patients in Shanghai. Maria Van Kerhove, Technical Lead of the WHO Emergencies Program raised concerns by questioning whether that antibody response actually means immunity?

Many queries need to be answered like — what does that antibody response look like in terms of immunity?” which antibodies are better in defeating the disease: someone who nearly died, or someone with light symptoms or the one that had no symptoms, in addition, will age make any difference? So all such ambiguities caution experts against generalized immunity strategy.

The concept of Risk-free certificate or immunity passports is considered a bad idea by the World Health Organization as it is uncertain as yet antibodies study doesn’t confirm anything and such individual might end up expanding the reach of disease. Social distancing is advisable and recovered patients should not throw caution away for the safety of society.

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