THE most likely game changer

The biggest game changer will be a vaccine (a year or more away), new drugs (unlikely for a very long time), combinations of existing drugs (many have been stated as effective but none have yet been selected for mass use) ... or knowing if people are immune.

Knowing the immune status is achieved by ANTIBODY testing - up to now testing is for the ANTIGEN (the virus itself) and this tells the person if he is currently infected.

Testing for the antibody will tell the person if he HAS been infected (even if he was not aware as the symptoms were very mild or non-existent). I queried many times on this forum why they were not doing antibody tests but the answer was they didn't have one! Now they have.

So, if people can be identified as immune (but not currently infected) then those people should (hopefully) be able to go out and return to work. No one knows currently how many that is - it could be millions in a country the size of the UK. They can return a country to nearer normality as they can work, go shopping, visiting cinemas etc.

One major problem I can foresee is how to identify them as, obviously, some people not tested will say they are immune (and many people will have self-tested at home)! The pubs will re-open and be filled 'self-declared immune' who are either (i) immune (good - but not tested so they did not know), (ii) uninfected but not immune and (iii) infected. So '(iii)' will be a great danger to '(ii)'.

The other problem is getting hold of the antibody test kits - let's hope all countries can get hold of kits so that we have a better understanding of the level of immunity within a population and can specifically identify those who are now immune.

Btw, there have been cases of recovered individuals who showed symptoms a second time but the evidence is that they are not spreaders. IF immunity is weak or short-lived then we are back to square one.

 

The real problem with Corona could be that although antibodies have developed against Corona after undergoing illness, this is precisely a major problem. Because with a second infection with the virus you would not be simply immune, rather there would be a rare overreaction that made everything far worse - the name is Cytokine storm syndrome , an overreaction of the immune system. If a person develops antibodies, the phenomenon ensures that the antibodies do not fight the effect of the virus, but rather intensify it. so, if you survive Corona and it's going to the next round and catches you again you have a rather better chance to die, because your immune system will collapse. If the cytokine storm thesis were correct, Corona would actually be the purest horror virus. The idea of "herd immunity", to which so many experts refer, would also have been done away with.
Just hearsay, I am not a virologist

 

This is a very good point and in fact it is playing a part in deaths from the Covid-19 disease. However this phenomenon is well known and is a response to many other infections and also certain drugs. There are drugs available to treat it - perhaps in some less-advanced health regions it may not be well-recognised or treated accordingly and, thus, it is possible those countries may have higher death rates.

 

There are ways that this virus is different from other as you guys have pointed out. But we are also learning now about complex inter-virus and inter-antibody types of interactions that are very problematic. For example, a recent study by the US military intended to measure the cost effectiveness of administering flu vaccine to military personnel found that having received the flu vaccine makes you more susceptible to corona virus, and the infections tend to be worse. These inter-virus interference patterns can result in a vaccine to immunize you against one virus can end up making you more susceptible to other viruses. This can be one of the explanations why one area can have one type of curve, and another area a different curve. It could relate to some areas being flu vaccination heavy and some areas much less.

 

Yes, all viruses are different. There are corona viruses out there that are considered "benign"!

There is not enough known about the COVID-19 virus to be sure that once infected and recovered gives any immunity....but based on the general cases of viruses it would seem likely.

But we have a very well-known virus that indeed gets worse if reinfected and that is dengue. It's the reason the Philippines pulled the dengue vaccine from distribution. The science is not complete, but there was evidence that after the vaccine provided "immunity," as subsequent infection would be deadly.

 

There's also this strange thing that after you recovered from one of the various Dengue strains, you are more likely to run into complications when you contract the other one.

 

Being 'obligate intracellular parasites' viruses are messing with our nucleic acids (the template of cell production itself) - it is not surprising that after an infection there may be changes that affect the body's reaction to reinfection with the same virus or by different viruses. Many cancers are suspected to have viral origins (obviously primarily due to messing up the DNA/RNA) and we cannot even be sure that infections with other pathogens (bacteria, fungi) are not affected by the effect of previous viral infections.

Viruses are b*st*rds! That is why they are so fascinating.

 

A rhetorical question, no doubt!

 

I'm recovering from hemorrhagic dengue fever, been told by the doctor second time is a lot worse. I'm staying indoors, wearing socks and long trousers and plenty of OFF on the exposed skin.