COVID-19 Damage Can Accumulate with Reinfections

 


A couple of months ago, I blogged about the possibility of an endless wash-rinse-repeat cycle of COVID-19 infections. It's possible because of the rate at which the virus is mutating, the genetic space it has left to mutate, and the fact that the mutations seem to be in the direction of greater contagiousness and immune evasion.

That is a depressing prospect even if there is no particular reason to fear reinfection except  inconvenience. But this week I have seen a couple of articles that paint a darker picture.

One article on a Canadian independent journalism site invoked the possibility of a "forever plague." They cited cases where people have been reinfected within 23 days. 

A CNN story summarized findings of a VA study (preprint) looking at cases of reinfections in five million participants. It showed that 

compared with those with just one Covid-19 infection, those with two or more documented infections had more than twice the risk of dying and three times the risk of being hospitalized within six months of their last infection. They also had higher risks for lung and heart problems, fatigue, digestive and kidney disorders, diabetes and neurologic problems.

Because the study was done among VA patients, it could be that outcomes were worse because people were older and/or had underlying health conditions. Still it is not good news that reinfections are not necessarily benign.

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