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Antibodies, Immunity, and What We Don’t Know About COVID-19
A lot of very smart people are quite alarmed by the WHO’s comments that there is no evidence of immunity for survivors of COVID-19.
This is leading some people to panic: If nobody becomes immune then how do we ever beat this thing. We’ll never have a vaccine! This is the end!
So, let’s drill down a little bit into what we know and don’t know.
No Evidence of Immunity
Factually, this statement is true. We can’t be sure that recovered patients are immune until we have observed an extended period of, well, people not getting sick again.
That extended period simply hasn’t happened yet.
But what the WHO is really saying is this: We don’t have enough proof to rely on antibody tests as proof of immunity.
What they’re saying is that we shouldn’t start issuing immunity passports or using high levels of antibodies in a population as proof herd immunity has been attained. Instead, we should just look at…well…how many people are getting sick.
So, how does this all go together?