New studies reportedly suggest lasting immunity to COVID-19 even in mild cases

Experts are voicing optimism that the body provides lasting COVID-19 immunity in those who have recovered from even a mild case following a series of new studies.

Scientists have recently been seeing "encouraging signs of strong, lasting immunity" to COVID-19, including in those who only had mild symptoms of the coronavirus, as antibodies that fight against the virus, and B cells and T cells that recognize it, "appear to persist months after infections have resolved," The New York Times reports.

"This is exactly what you would hope for," University of Washington immunologist Marion Pepper, who authored one of the recent studies, told the Times. "All the pieces are there to have a totally protective immune response."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Especially encouraging, the Times explains, is evidence of immunity in patients who just had mild symptoms, which suggests, as University of California immunologist Smita Iyer explained, that "you can still get durable immunity without suffering the consequences of infection." Emory University immunologist Eun-Hyung Lee also told the Times, "Yes, you do develop immunity to this virus, and good immunity to this virus. That's the message we want to get out there."

At the same time, the Times notes that it's still not clear how long the immune responses might last, and the recent studies "do not demonstrate protection in action." Read more at The New York Times.