"The World Health Organization has pushed back against the theory that individuals can only catch the coronavirus once, as well as proposals for reopening society that are based on this supposed immunity."

"In a scientific brief dated Friday, the United Nations agency said the idea that one-time infection can lead to immunity remains unproven and is thus unreliable as a foundation for the next phase of the world's response to the pandemic."

Like comment on that mhaze?

Paul,

Simple question: have any health workers, doctors, nurses, contracted the virus more than once ? That Chinese doctor who blew the whistle on the virus, seemed to get re-infected, and died.

Okay, another question: of those hundreds of thousands who have recovered from the virus, have any been reinfected ?

Cheers,

Joe

Hi Joe,

Its possible that the antibodies developed within the human body from covid-19 may offer some limited protection, such as less severe symptoms as is the case with the common cold, but like the common cold there is no evidence of lifetime immunity. Have people be reinfected, without a scientific study over a long period of time, its impossible to say what the reinfection rates could be, but there has been mention of refection in some cases.

"While there’s a consensus that the key to ending the coronavirus pandemic is establishing co-called herd immunity, there are many unknowns. One is whether researchers can develop a safe and effective vaccine. Another is how long people who’ve recovered have immunity; reinfection after months or years is common with other human coronaviruses. Finally, it’s not clear what percentage of people must be immune to protect the “herd.” That depends on the contagiousness of the virus."

"The WHO said it’s reviewing the scientific evidence on antibody responses to coronavirus, but as yet no study has evaluated whether the presence of antibodies “confers immunity to subsequent infection by this virus in humans.” And while many countries are currently testing for antibodies, these studies aren’t designed to determine whether people recovered from the disease acquire immunity, the agency said."

Herd immunity, is a very dangerous pathway to follow, a huge number of deaths, without any guarantee of long term immunity for the survivors.

Not to sure if mhaze, will be back to respond, he hangs off every word Trump utters as being gospel. Dangerous Dr Donald said DISINFECTANT was worth a try. Maybe poor mhaze consumed a bottle of Pine O' Clean on The Donald's advice. I hope not, the manufacture said his product will kill you!

Paul,

Is this fair dinkum ?

" The State Department is warning that commercial flights to the United States from overseas may end in the coming days and urging Americans abroad to grab any opportunity to board them. "

Of course, this was from the New York Times, so it's probably fake news. But are the Yanks just getting around to quarantining the country ? In late April ?

On the Insiders this morning, I was a bit upset about van Onselen's comment about taking advice from barflies - I can see his point, of course about disinfectant, but I've known one or two quite intelligent barflies.

But what's the bet that disinfectant sales in the US, especially out there in hick country, have soared ?

Joe

From the great Scott Adams..."Watching CNN cover the news from an alternate reality in which they pretend to believe Trump asked a doctor about injecting Clorox and Lysol into #coronavirus patients is flat-out amazing. It's the "fine people" hoax all over again. How do their viewers fall for it every time?"

I don't know how they fall for it...best ask Paul, LM etc.

"Is this fair dinkum ?"

Yep its true. There are commercial flights into the USA. They are only available to US citizens and permanent residents.

You'll be surprised to learn that the same applies here. Citizens can fly into Australia but will be subject to quarantine.

I think you'll find this is the case in most countries. But since its Trump let's just criticise the US