There have been several waves in the past year, and if you are infected, you can be infected again... Is it possible that the new coronavirus will become like this?
A study published in the journal "Science" (Science) showed that compared with the previous Beta strain and Delta strain, the Omicron strain has a significantly higher re-infection rate.
Moreover, even if you have been infected with other new coronavirus strains before, you may be infected again or multiple times Omicron .
This study used the epidemiological data of South Africa to identify and analyze more than 100,000 cases of multiple infections from the data of two million people infected with the new coronavirus.
Many of these people were infected three times, and then were infected with Omicron again after being infected with the original strain, the Delta strain. A news article published by
"Nature" (Nature) also stated that so far, 650,000 people in the UK have been repeatedly infected with the new crown virus, the vast majority of which occurred since the emergence of Omicron in December last year.
Before November 2021, less than 1% of confirmed cases in the UK were repeat infections. After the emergence of Omicron, the proportion of repeated infections increased significantly, about 10 times higher than in the early stages of the epidemic.
The spread pattern of Omicron seems to be more and more like the common cold : there is no clear seasonality, it mutates quite rapidly, and it is possible to be infected multiple times in a short period of time.
In this case, to completely avoid infection, herd immunity is unrealistic, and vaccines need to be updated as soon as possible to deal with new mutant strains.
Although it is difficult for a study to explain anything, it can at least provide some guidance on our epidemic prevention methods.
References
[1] Pulliam J R C, van Schalkwyk C, Govender N, et al. Increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection associated with emergence of the Omicron variant in South Africa[J]. Science, 15 Mar 2022 Vol 376 , Issue 6593. 10.1126/science.abn4947
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn4947
[2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00438-3
Planning and production
Planning: ZYing | Producer: Feidi
Cover image source: Lilac Doctor content team
