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RE-INFECTION CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE: 26-year old world class cyclist 
Gaviria caught #COVID19 in Feb—hospitalized for 2 weeks. Prevailing wisdom suggested he’d at least be immune for foreseeable future. He was wrong. Reinfected 8 months later. Worrisome. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pro-cyclist-who-caught-covid-twice-11606919308
2) “We don’t know how long [immunity] lasts... I wouldn’t be surprised that the COVID immunity also doesn’t last very long when acquired from natural infections” says @VirusesImmunity.
![2) “We don’t know how long [immunity] lasts... I wouldn’t be surprised that the COVID immunity also doesn’t last very long when acquired from natural infections” says @VirusesImmunity.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EoUd4aGXIAYd3Ck.jpg "2) “We don’t know how long [immunity] lasts... I wouldn’t be surprised that the COVID immunity also doesn’t last very long when acquired from natural infections” says @VirusesImmunity.")
3) That said, others point out that vaccines might offer better stronger immunity than natural infection. https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1330111548870832129
4) As @michaelmina_lab explains, vaccine is more targeted to the #SARSCoV2 receptor while natural infection has a more “choose your own adventure” what parts of virus one develops antibodies to. Targeted likely better. https://twitter.com/michaelmina_lab/status/1330383383415943169
5) The analogy @michaelmina_lab explains is that natural infection can develop non-useful antibody recognition like to a less useful “pinky toe” part. While the vaccine is targeted to the spike protein that is critical in virus latching and entering human cells. https://twitter.com/michaelmina_lab/status/1330383677851922432
6) the best REINFECTION TRACKER online is run by @BNODesk. They’ve tracked 26 officially confirmed cases so far (27 once they add cyclist above), with genomic comparisons of virus strains. Also 1167 suspected reinfections too. Notice the age ranges. https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/08/covid-19-reinfection-tracker/
7) did the pro cyclist Fernando Gaviria recover fully from his Feb 2020 hospitalization? Oh yes. After his first bout, he won more 
races this year — Giro della Toscana, a stage of Vuelta a Burgos and a stage of Tour du Limousin. So yeah, he recovered. https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/fernando-gaviria/overview/start
races this year — Giro della Toscana, a stage of Vuelta a Burgos and a stage of Tour du Limousin. So yeah, he recovered. https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/fernando-gaviria/overview/start
8) Many originally didn’t believe that vaccines could be superior to natural infection immunity. But now it seems true. Another reason to go for vaccine rather than natural plow thru infection. https://twitter.com/virusesimmunity/status/1333445089243373569
9) there is something with vaccines we need to prep people for: the initial reactogenicity of fatigue that naturally happens. It’s a sign it’s working but it could scare people at first. https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1334594263183728642
10) Also, @BNODesk counts at least 7 cases of confirmed reinfections in which the second infection event was more serious / symptomatically stronger than first infection. And these are all *confirmed* reinfections with virus strains’ genome comparisons. https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/08/covid-19-reinfection-tracker/
11) REINFECTION RARE or COMMON? hmmm tricky— it’s rare but not super rare. How do we know? Luckily a team of scientists from WHO and Cornell did a deep digging for all reinfection cases couple months ago... https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1311052770364067841
12) Reinfection rate?
incidence rate of reinfection of 0.36 per 10k person-weeks, equals about:
1 reinfection per 30k person weeks
1 reinfection per 1000 recovered patients followed for 30 weeks.
1 reinfection per 10k recovered patients followed for 3 weeks
incidence rate of reinfection of 0.36 per 10k person-weeks, equals about:1 reinfection per 30k person weeks1 reinfection per 1000 recovered patients followed for 30 weeks. 1 reinfection per 10k recovered patients followed for 3 weeks
13) Thus for the currently ~ 14,000,000 diagnosed cases in US, there might be potentially 1,400 reinfections every 3 weeks implied by the math. But we don’t see them likely because most are mild and genome sequencing to confirm them is rare. And depends on background rates.
14) Are 2nd infections “completely asymptomatic”? Of the confirmed cases, here are 10 circled reinfections, in which 2nd was more severe. Many other scientists have acknowledged this. https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/08/covid-19-reinfection-tracker/
15) We have so much to learn on reinfection. Just like previously human-to-human, asymptomatic transmission, airborne transmission, we should take the precautionary principle.
People need to still wear masks even if they *think* they had #COVID19 before. https://twitter.com/k_g_andersen/status/1335101949121687553
People need to still wear masks even if they *think* they had #COVID19 before. https://twitter.com/k_g_andersen/status/1335101949121687553
