In the 10 patients in the study who did not develop detectable antibodies, "other immune responses, including T cells or cytokines, may contribute to the recovery," the researchers wrote.
T cells are a type of white blood cells that aid in immune response, and cytokines are a type of molecule that cells release to fight infections. However, when too many cytokines are released, they cause inflammation — which has reportedly contributed to fatal outcomes in some COVID-19 patients.
Even in patients who do develop coronavirus antibodies, scientists still aren't sure how long they'll last; the virus has not been around long enough to study long-term effects.
Generally, once your body has antibodies to fight off a particular disease, you can't get it again, though some types of antibodies weaken over time. Plus, with viruses that mutate — such as the common cold or seasonal flu — antibodies people build up against one strain aren't effective against others
If you can believe Dr. Faci, remember what he said before...
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said it’s unlikely that people would get the coronavirus more than once — at least within a short time period.
“If we get infected in February and March and recover, next September, October, that person who’s infected — I believe — is going to be protected,” Fauci said on Wednesday during a livestreamed conversation with Howard Bauchner, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Over 375,000 people worldwide have recovered from the coronavirus (likely more, given that many mild and asymptomatic cases are not reported in official counts). Given that a third of the world is under some kind of lockdown, those who have recovered could potentially emerge and return to work first.
Hard to predict what a Chinese made biological weapon will do. They probably didn’t know. Oh, I forgot, it was bat wing soup.