People can catch covid twice, or more, so even after you have had it I would still wear a mask. Usually we have a developed immunity after a virus, such as chicken pox, but that isn't the case here. The vaccines are not 100% effective, but with widespread vaccination and continued mask use it's possible to cut down the transmission rate, and when the majority of people have been vaccinated the use of masks may become less important.
COVID-19 is a new type of coronavirus that causes mild to severe cases. Here’s a quick guide on how to spot symptoms, risk factors, prevent spread of the disease, and find out what to do if you think you have it.
www.webmd.com
Hello; I read the article. There are some important things to consider. First may be how the immune system works. After getting sick from an infection from a virus your body eventually is loaded with antibodies tailored to seek out the spikes of that virus and attach to the virus and make it unable to do it's thing. ( there are some other things going on also, but this is more closely related to the vaccines)
For some time after the virus is controlled by the antibodies there will be a lot of them but over time the antibodies numbers drop off. The trick is that the immune system keep a record of that particular virus and can ramp up protection with new antibodies for that virus quickly. So yes you can be exposed to that same virus by being around someone shedding the virus and if tested it will show up as a positive test. However you do not become ill from the next exposure just as the man in the article did not have symptoms.
The way I understand it, when you pick up a virus a second , third or more times the body recognizes it right away and re starts making antibodies for it. Long before you get ill from the later exposures, the antibodies stop it. Also for a time after the initial (first) infection there is a level of antibodies that stays present for some time.
The best argument is about the vaccine not being 100% effective. So at 90% about 1 in ten are not protected from the virus. That ten percent are still at risk of becoming ill. However the millions around the world who are recovered, or at least no longer shedding virus, are not at risk or becoming sick nor can they shed virus and infect others.
I have also felt for a while that the actual numbers of already infected and recovered will turn out to be much higher than is showing to be the case by the testing numbers so far. This is just something I figure and I cannot prove. As the accurate information piles up this may be shown to be so.
I guess the situation is there now seems to be a "thing" about masks that does not make sense (follow the science also). For me, since I am not sure I have had the virus, is still makes sense to take precautions such as wearing a mask. There are many who got confirmed to have had the actual virus and are clear of the virus by now. These folks are not at risk and could be in a room saturated with covid19 and will not get sick again. What is the purpose of a mask for them? The way it looks, to me at least, there is some sort of social stigma about masks apart and separate from the effects of the virus itself.
