Patrick Bardill, Ph.D.:
Scientists are still trying to understand immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Because this is a new virus, we aren’t exactly sure of the key parameters of immunity, such as the length of time a person is immune after having the virus or if it is possible to not develop immunity. However, SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus and we do know some things about immunity to coronaviruses in general. We can use that information to make some baseline guesses. With other human coronaviruses, people develop immunity for about two years after infection. At this point, it seems that people do mount immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and, based on other coronaviruses, probably have some short-term immunity, but we do not know this for certain and we do not know yet how long that immunity might last.
Jack Lipton, Ph.D.:
We’ll only know with time. A year from now, we’ll only know if people who have it now are immune for one year, based on research. Everything else is speculation based on other human coronaviruses, which is very helpful, but not certain.