Many people are infected with the new coronavirus again and again, is this the new normal?

Recently, the new crown epidemic has once again become the focus of society and the public. This time, various variants derived from the new coronavirus are infectious. They not only break through the acquired immunity of passive infection, but also make multiple vaccination protection “ineffective”.

Simply put, the new wave of peaks highlights the characteristics of the new coronavirus“reinfection” . Is this the new normal life that people imagine?

Most people have a cold experience, no one cares Repeated colds; Few people die of severe illness due to colds, and long-term sequelae after colds are even rarer.

But the new coronavirus is not the same, not only the infected people are seriously ill, but even die. It is estimated that nearly 18 million people worldwide died from the new crown virus infection in two years; even worse, there are tens of millions of people who suffer from “new crown sequelae” and live a long life.

At the beginning, experts did not realize that repeated infection with the new coronavirus became the “new normal”, but predicted that the epidemic would soon evolve into an “endemic infectious disease” . Because from the perspective of viral diseases and the body’s immune protection function, repeated infection of the same virus has little chance of causing disease, but the result is that the new coronavirus is dazzling. !”

SARS-CoV-2 virus actually showed a “lightning evolution”, and new variants emerged one after another. Reinfections are likely to be of a different subtype or variant. Dr. Fauci also had to admit that “I wouldn’t be surprised if someone gets infected with the new coronavirus more than once a year.”

more and more facts have experts admitting that “this will be the new normal.”

Can mixed immunity resist the new coronavirus and its variants?

Passive infection (natural infection with a virus) and vaccination can both improve immunity and have a double protective effect. Is it resistant to repeated virus infections? The actual situation is still not satisfactory.

Of course, vaccines reduce the severity and mortality of patients. But the Omicron variant derived more subtypes, such as BA.2; BA.4 or BA.5; BA5.1 and so on. The latest research data show that multiple booster vaccinations plus acquired immunity after being infected with the new coronavirus are more effective in preventing “recurrent infections” than vaccination alone or passive immunity from natural infection.

Professor Wachter, a virus expert at the University of California, said: “You already have antiviral immunity, including immunity after natural infection and immunity induced by vaccination. These are not useless, just “Weaker” than people thought.

In short, the new coronavirus has not been completely eliminated. If vaccination or natural infection immunity or both, it will eventually be effective It is also worthwhile to improve personal immune protection and at least reduce the chance of dying from new coronavirus infection.

Stanford University infectious disease experts believe that repeated infection strengthens cellular immunity. Against similar viruses, reinfection symptoms may become milder. Of course, unpredictable new variants may also make infections more severe or deadly.

What else is “unknown”?

1. How Slow down the spread of the virus, and make the contagion smaller and less frequent. In other words, don’t break out a “pandemic” every once in a while. Slowing down the spread of the virus also helps slow down the emergence of new variants. They will continue to It evolved.

2. The new coronavirus infection is still a relatively new disease, and the medical community still does not know how “recurrent infection” affects the body? Or what does “coronavirus sequelae” mean? Unfortunately, repeated infection of the virus can no longer assume possible consequences, but inevitable consequences – Severely affect health .

3. Who is potentially high-risk “coronavirus””Susceptible”? How or how to protect them? The elderly/children/or those with underlying diseases?

4. Who is the next new coronavirus variant?< /span>