On August 3, 2020, CDC updated its isolation guidance based on the latest science about COVID-19 showing that people can continue to test positive for up to 3 months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others. Contrary to media reporting today, this science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the 3 months following infection. The latest data simply suggests that retesting someone in the 3 months following initial infection is not necessary unless that person is exhibiting the symptoms of COVID-19 and the symptoms cannot be associated with another illness.
People with COVID-19 should be isolated for at least 10 days after symptom onset and until 24 hours after their fever subsides without the use of fever-reducing medications.
There have been more than 15 international and U.S.-based studies recently published looking at length of infection, duration of viral shed, asymptomatic spread and risk of spread among various patient groups. Researchers have found that the amount of live virus in the nose and throat drops significantly soon after COVID-19 symptoms develop. Additionally, the duration of infectiousness in most people with COVID-19 is no longer than 10 days after symptoms begin and no longer than 20 days in people with severe illness or those who are severely immunocompromised.
CDC will continue to closely monitor the evolving science for information that would warrant reconsideration of these recommendations.
I wonder if this is them trying to downplay interpretations of "yay, you're immune for 3 months!" or "oh no, after 3 months, you're not immune", but rather trying to say "we don't know one way or...
I wonder if this is them trying to downplay interpretations of "yay, you're immune for 3 months!" or "oh no, after 3 months, you're not immune", but rather trying to say "we don't know one way or the other on this immunity thing, but if you've had it recently don't bother getting a test since there's a good chance it will come back positive even if you might not have it or be infectious & since we can't give you a test, we can't very well ask any of these re-exposed people to quarantine for 10 days each time, especially for healthcare workers & other essential workers because then the whole thing would fall apart. & besides, we're not doing so hot on the test front anyways".
Getting the same vibe of when my parents tried to tell me something but didn't want to tell me everything.
I'unno, and I'm not sure the CDC knows for sure either. Granted there was the whole thing about masks not being recommended initially and that didn't pan out great, but there's probably too much...
I'unno, and I'm not sure the CDC knows for sure either. Granted there was the whole thing about masks not being recommended initially and that didn't pan out great, but there's probably too much happening and not enough being recorded to say one way or the other whether you're good for three months, and then all it takes is one early remission to be back at I'unno again.
Really stinks since I thought I was done with this stupid bug already.
Put it like this, the usual case seems to be "You catch it, you suffer for a few weeks, maybe you get it bad and die, maybe not. Congrats, you're immune now." We've had suspicious little...
Put it like this, the usual case seems to be "You catch it, you suffer for a few weeks, maybe you get it bad and die, maybe not. Congrats, you're immune now." We've had suspicious little reinfections for people to not be immune with any kind of regularity. We've had inconclusive tests.
There is a chance Corona won't quite leave (first I'm reading of this) with patients testing positive, presumably with PCR tests. PCR tests test for the virus' genome, so you can use a commercially available immune system or some isopropyl alcohol to kill it and render it useless, but it'll still show up in PCR. This is what seems to happen here: Patients that are sick for a long time keep shedding dead virus (my inference here would be that the virus keeps replicating in the body and can hold on, but it can't evade the immune system long term. Meaning it will not accumulate in e.g. lung fluid. Not alive anyway. So you can't infect anyone, but your test is still positive. This is btw a well documented phenomenon that starts kicking in pretty much at symptom onset. You're highly infectious for like 2 days and then it drops already.
We can kind of presume that it's possible that people can get reinfected, but we can infer from the numbers that it's rare.
So from that lense, what the CDC is saying here is "What happens if incredibly rare case A combines with incredibly rare case B? Fuck, I'unno, stop asking."
Realistically, my guess of what would happen is... nothing. You keep producing virus, enough to turn your test positive for weeks without being infectious. Your lungs are continuously exposed to the virus, they just keep killing it quick enough. You ingest a viral particle. Your body kills it. The end. Reinfection unlikely, particularly for the cases that keep shedding for 3 months. Apart from that: The CDC is only clarifying that these studies say nothing about immunity at all.
I wonder if this is them trying to downplay interpretations of "yay, you're immune for 3 months!" or "oh no, after 3 months, you're not immune", but rather trying to say "we don't know one way or the other on this immunity thing, but if you've had it recently don't bother getting a test since there's a good chance it will come back positive even if you might not have it or be infectious & since we can't give you a test, we can't very well ask any of these re-exposed people to quarantine for 10 days each time, especially for healthcare workers & other essential workers because then the whole thing would fall apart. & besides, we're not doing so hot on the test front anyways".
Getting the same vibe of when my parents tried to tell me something but didn't want to tell me everything.
I'unno, and I'm not sure the CDC knows for sure either. Granted there was the whole thing about masks not being recommended initially and that didn't pan out great, but there's probably too much happening and not enough being recorded to say one way or the other whether you're good for three months, and then all it takes is one early remission to be back at I'unno again.
Really stinks since I thought I was done with this stupid bug already.
Put it like this, the usual case seems to be "You catch it, you suffer for a few weeks, maybe you get it bad and die, maybe not. Congrats, you're immune now." We've had suspicious little reinfections for people to not be immune with any kind of regularity. We've had inconclusive tests.
There is a chance Corona won't quite leave (first I'm reading of this) with patients testing positive, presumably with PCR tests. PCR tests test for the virus' genome, so you can use a commercially available immune system or some isopropyl alcohol to kill it and render it useless, but it'll still show up in PCR. This is what seems to happen here: Patients that are sick for a long time keep shedding dead virus (my inference here would be that the virus keeps replicating in the body and can hold on, but it can't evade the immune system long term. Meaning it will not accumulate in e.g. lung fluid. Not alive anyway. So you can't infect anyone, but your test is still positive. This is btw a well documented phenomenon that starts kicking in pretty much at symptom onset. You're highly infectious for like 2 days and then it drops already.
We can kind of presume that it's possible that people can get reinfected, but we can infer from the numbers that it's rare.
So from that lense, what the CDC is saying here is "What happens if incredibly rare case A combines with incredibly rare case B? Fuck, I'unno, stop asking."
Realistically, my guess of what would happen is... nothing. You keep producing virus, enough to turn your test positive for weeks without being infectious. Your lungs are continuously exposed to the virus, they just keep killing it quick enough. You ingest a viral particle. Your body kills it. The end. Reinfection unlikely, particularly for the cases that keep shedding for 3 months. Apart from that: The CDC is only clarifying that these studies say nothing about immunity at all.