The bad news? COVID-19 may be around for a long, long time. The good news? Even if it does, new research suggests it could very well end up being just another mild illness, bringing with it inconvenience and discomfort, but rarely hospitalization or death. Why? The theory is rooted in the epidemiology patterns previously followed by four other coronaviruses. All have been in circulation for a very long time. In fact, they’re endemic, which means that most people get infected and develop immunity during childhood that protects against serious illness (although not reinfection) as adults. And that trajectory led a team of investigators to model what might ultimately happen in the future if most people were similarly exposed to the new coronavirus during childhood. “In the vast majority of cases, the endemic human coronaviruses [HCoVs] cause nothing more than a common cold, [meaning an] upper respiratory tract infection,” said study author Jennie Lavine, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biology at Emory University in Atlanta. About 15% of adult common colds are believed to be attributable to HCoVs, she added. “They sometimes lead to lower respiratory tract infections, particularly in very young children and the elderly,” Lavine noted. Only in rare cases, among particularly vulnerable populations, do they trigger more serious illness. “It seems likely that COVID-19 will end up playing out this way,”…  read on >  read on >

Folks who’ve gotten through a COVID-19 infection might naturally question whether they need to get a coronavirus vaccination when their turn comes. Experts say they really need the shot anyway, because even after having COVID they might be vulnerable to reinfection. “We’re encouraging people if they meet the other criteria to get immunized because we don’t know how long either natural immunity or vaccine immunity lasts,” said Dr. Chris Beyrer, a professor of public health and human rights at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. All previously known coronaviruses are notorious for promoting short-lived immunity in humans, he said. “Unfortunately, with other coronaviruses typically the immunity you have — like if you get a common cold coronavirus — usually only lasts about a year and a half to two years and then you’re vulnerable again,” Beyrer said. This is because the body uses a relatively simple strategy to fight off common cold coronaviruses, and this strategy does not appear to make a lasting impression on immune system memory, said Dr. Greg Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. As such, he said there’s a chance people who had asymptomatic or mild cases of COVID-19 did not build up any lasting immunity. “Particularly for people who have milder cases, it may be that they don’t have…  read on >  read on >

The bad news? COVID-19 may be around for a long, long time. The good news? Even if it does, new research suggests it could very well end up being just another mild illness, bringing with it inconvenience and discomfort, but rarely hospitalization or death. Why? The theory is rooted in the epidemiology patterns previously followed by four other coronaviruses. All have been in circulation for a very long time. In fact, they’re endemic, which means that most people get infected and develop immunity during childhood that protects against serious illness (although not reinfection) as adults. And that trajectory led a team of investigators to model what might ultimately happen in the future if most people were similarly exposed to the new coronavirus during childhood. “In the vast majority of cases, the endemic human coronaviruses [HCoVs] cause nothing more than a common cold, [meaning an] upper respiratory tract infection,” said study author Jennie Lavine, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biology at Emory University in Atlanta. About 15% of adult common colds are believed to be attributable to HCoVs, she added. “They sometimes lead to lower respiratory tract infections, particularly in very young children and the elderly,” Lavine noted. Only in rare cases, among particularly vulnerable populations, do they trigger more serious illness. “It seems likely that COVID-19 will end up playing out this way,”…  read on >  read on >

Folks who’ve gotten through a COVID-19 infection might naturally question whether they need to get a coronavirus vaccination when their turn comes. Experts say they really need the shot anyway, because even after having COVID they might be vulnerable to reinfection. “We’re encouraging people if they meet the other criteria to get immunized because we don’t know how long either natural immunity or vaccine immunity lasts,” said Dr. Chris Beyrer, a professor of public health and human rights at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. All previously known coronaviruses are notorious for promoting short-lived immunity in humans, he said. “Unfortunately, with other coronaviruses typically the immunity you have — like if you get a common cold coronavirus — usually only lasts about a year and a half to two years and then you’re vulnerable again,” Beyrer said. This is because the body uses a relatively simple strategy to fight off common cold coronaviruses, and this strategy does not appear to make a lasting impression on immune system memory, said Dr. Greg Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. As such, he said there’s a chance people who had asymptomatic or mild cases of COVID-19 did not build up any lasting immunity. “Particularly for people who have milder cases, it may be that they don’t have…  read on >  read on >

The bad news? COVID-19 may be around for a long, long time. The good news? Even if it does, new research suggests it could very well end up being just another mild illness, bringing with it inconvenience and discomfort, but rarely hospitalization or death. Why? The theory is rooted in the epidemiology patterns previously followed by four other coronaviruses. All have been in circulation for a very long time. In fact, they’re endemic, which means that most people get infected and develop immunity during childhood that protects against serious illness (although not reinfection) as adults. And that trajectory led a team of investigators to model what might ultimately happen in the future if most people were similarly exposed to the new coronavirus during childhood. “In the vast majority of cases, the endemic human coronaviruses [HCoVs] cause nothing more than a common cold, [meaning an] upper respiratory tract infection,” said study author Jennie Lavine, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biology at Emory University in Atlanta. About 15% of adult common colds are believed to be attributable to HCoVs, she added. “They sometimes lead to lower respiratory tract infections, particularly in very young children and the elderly,” Lavine noted. Only in rare cases, among particularly vulnerable populations, do they trigger more serious illness. “It seems likely that COVID-19 will end up playing out this way,”…  read on >  read on >