German concerthall chief falls sick with Corona
mainThe head of the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Michael Becker, has gone into isolation at home after showing symptoms of Covid-19.
There have been no performances at the hall since October 11.
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Sars-cov-2 is highly infectious and virulent, more so than bog standard winter Flu.
To date, there has been 5 cases of reinfection reported in the medical literature in patients aged between 25-52, in US, Ecuador, Belgium, Hong Kong and India. In the US case the patient’s second infection after recovering from the earlier one was far worse, his immune system was over stimulated causing the “cytokine” storm, requiring hospitalisation, anti inflammatory treatment, oxygen therapy and ventilation. There was a significant genomic difference in the two strains of Sars-cov-2 which infected him, suggesting that an earlier infection does not necessarily give immunity. A vaccine if found will probably on give partial short term immunity, hence the importance of maintaining SD measures, sanitising, face masks, and avoiding crowded places.
This ECDC bulletin summarises the reinfection case histories.
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/Re-infection-and-viral-shedding-threat-assessment-brief.pdf
While not wanting to minimize the possible limitations to the efficacy of vaccines under development, it does seem that 5 documented cases of reinfection (so far) out of 43 million diagnosed cases is not a matter of the most urgent concern.
I certainly agree that continuing precautionary practices is necessary until the infection rate stabilizes at a very low level (via vaccination and/or other measures), and that could take quite a while.
The number of cases of reinfection by Sars-cov-2 are under reported a Lancet paper I recall reading recently.
There could be many examples of the first infection being asymptomatic and the second infection resulting in symptoms, which would not seem like reinfection.
Asymptomatic transmission is under reported in the literature, in the US patient, he had classic symptoms in both infections, the first not requiring hospitalisation, the infection caused by the second Sars-cov-2 strain was genomically distinct from the earlier infection, see Tillett et al 2020, this indicates it is mutating and he may have acquired a higher viral load second time round.
Thanks, Doc Martin – actually 6 (there were two in India, both asymptomatic both times). It looks as though the safety precautions are going to be necessary for some years to come, if not permanently. Perhaps they will become second nature!
Anyone who is not willing to mask up permanently is simply being selfish. How hard is it to put a piece of cloth on your face? This is a global pandemic.
Permanently?!
I’ve been an advocate of masks even when the WHo was coming up with some claptrap about them being of limited benefit to the general population.
However , they are only necessary in certain situations.
That will be no great hardship for lockdownism’s true believers.
Yes I meant five case locations, India having two, the US one was more severe second time, there were distinct genomic differences between the two infections. I doubt a vaccine will cover all strains effectively, SD and masks being the best bet so far.