People who recovered from the novel coronavirus may have less than 90 days of immunity, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What’s going on?
The new study looked at 156 health care workers in the U.S. who tested positive for COVID-19. The workers took an antibody test one month after developing symptoms, and then another about 60 days later.
- 94% of participants showed some sort of decline in antibodies by the time of the second test.
- 28% experienced a significant decline.
Why it matters
Questions about how long antibodies last have existed since the beginning of the pandemic. For example, in October, a study showed antibodies lose power over time. Similarly, there was research in July that suggested the antibodies have a 73-day half-life, meaning half of the antibodies would die within 73 days.
The CDC was pretty clear about what this means: “SARS-CoV-2 antibodies decline over weeks following acute infection. Negative SARS-CoV-2 serologic results do not exclude previous infection, which has significant impacts on how serologic studies are interpreted.”
KSTP medical expert Dr. Archelle Georgiou said the significant decline in antibodies is a sign that people who recovered from COVID-19 might not be safe from the virus.
- “The 28% had such a large drop in their antibody levels by 60 days, it would be highly unlikely that they would be protected from getting reinfected,” Georgiou said. “I absolutely think people should let go of the belief that you’re safe in terms of being reinfected or reinfecting others just because you’ve already had COVID-19.”