More SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections Reported, But Still a Rare Event

Repeat COVID-19 cases could offer clues about people’s immunity to the novel coronavirus and how to vaccinate against it.

Ashley Yeager

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ABOVE: SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow) infect a cell (blue)
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At least 285 individuals in Mexico appear to have contracted the novel coronavirus twice, according to a preprint posted October 18 on medRxiv. The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, is the largest to date to assess the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection. It fuels an ongoing discussion among researchers about how long immunity to the virus lasts after an initial infection and how that length of immunity may affect the way vaccines against the virus are administered in the future.

“If we find that our immunity is poor, or nonexistent . . . this will be a big problem for vaccination policies,” study coauthor Carlos Hernandez-Suarez, a researcher at Universidad de Colima in San Sebastian, Mexico, tells The Scientist, adding that no conclusions can be made from the current data about the strength of survivors’ immunity or the ...

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Meet the Author

Ashley Yeager
Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.
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