The NIH has published a piece reflecting the possible leak of long term immunity to COVID-19 infections. They note:
The new findings show that people who survive a COVID-19 infection continue to produce protective antibodies against key parts of the virus for at least three to four months after developing their first symptoms. In contrast, some other antibody types decline more quickly. The findings offer hope that people infected with the virus will have some lasting antibody protection against re-infection, though for how long still remains to be determined. In one of the two studies, partly funded by NIH, researchers led by Richelle Charles, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, sought a more detailed understanding of antibody responses following infection with SARS-CoV-2. To get a closer look, they enrolled 343 patients, most of whom had severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. They examined their antibody responses for up to 122 days after symptoms developed and compared them to antibodies in more than 1,500 blood samples collected before the pandemic began. The researchers characterized the development of three types of antibodies in the blood samples. The first type was immunoglobulin G (IgG), which has the potential to confer sustained immunity. The second type was immunoglobulin A (IgA), which protects against infection on the body’s mucosal surfaces, such as those found in the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, and are found in high levels in tears, mucus, and other bodily secretions. The third type is immunoglobulin M (IgM), which the body produces first when fighting an infection.
In the limited data on patients I have seen it appears that some form of immunity may exist for several months but that the Ab do drop significantly. If that means loss of any immunity then what we have is a disease that requires annual, at the very least, re-immunization.
Herd immunity does not exist in the classic sense. Simply, reinfection is possible and we have seen that already. However the reinfections are often with "mutated" virus RNA. One could assume that the elegantly engineered corona virus may have been designed that way but that would be mere speculation.
Notwithstanding, any suggestion that we rely upon herd immunity is not only specious but harmful and wrong. It is worth reading the reference papers in the above article to see just this effect.
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