COVID19 Update - Day 160

US Tests: 67,621,119*

US Cases: 5,417,366*

US Deaths: 162,400*

Worldwide Cases: 21,809,170*

Worldwide Deaths: 772,479*

* - Numbers are a lower bound.  True numbers are being suppressed by the Trump administration

Are you ready for some good news?  Over the past 6 months, there have been various news stories indicating that perhaps the human immune system doesn't respond normally to COVID19, and that contracting the disease (and recovering from it) might not confer immunity.

Today, the New York Times reports that there's reason to believe recovering from the virus DOES make you immune after all:

Scientists who have been monitoring immune responses to the virus are now starting to see encouraging signs of strong, lasting immunity, even in people who developed only mild symptoms of Covid-19, a flurry of new studies suggests. Disease-fighting antibodies, as well as immune cells called B cells and T cells that are capable of recognizing the virus, appear to persist months after infections have resolved — an encouraging echo of the body’s enduring response to other viruses.

“Things are really working as they’re supposed to,” said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona and an author on one of the new studies, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Although researchers cannot forecast how long these immune responses will last, many experts consider the data a welcome indication that the body’s most studious cells are doing their job — and will have a good chance of fending off the coronavirus, faster and more fervently than before, if exposed to it again.

Obviously, this also bodes well for the effectiveness of a vaccine, once developed.