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Can you get coronavirus twice?

The CDC recently published research on frontline workers, but there isn't enough data about reinfections.
Credit: AP
Syringes containing the COVID-19 vaccine are shown, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at John Knox Village in Pompano Beach.

TAMPA, Fla. — Can you get coronavirus twice? That's a question experts have been asking for months. 

The issue is there is very little data about reinfections. We talked about it with Dr. Jill Roberts at USF Health.  She's a molecular epidemiologist and associate professor with a specialization in emerging diseases. 

The CDC published a study at the end of November. It looked at the antibodies of 156 frontline health care workers 60 days out from testing positive. Researchers found 28 percent of them didn't have the antibody just two months out. 

Dr. Roberts says the piece that's missing is whether they are actually truly positive for a new strain or positive for the same strain again. She says there's a possibility, especially with a rapid test, they're still infected but it's showing a negative response. 

"The person feels healthy and they feel fine, but maybe the virus is just remaining in their body and it's not causing any problem. Only to pop up later again and cause problems again," Roberts said.

Dr. Roberts says she has a student that is doing a study right now on this very topic. She's looking in California where there are a lot of cases. She's doing the genomics of those who had reinfections. 

She will look at the strains and say the first infection was this strain--in the second infection, was it the same one? In which case, is this potentially a person that just remained infected throughout, or is it really truly a second strain?

Dr. Roberts says unless we have the genomics from the first and second times, we cannot be 100% sure whether it's true reinfection or a totally different strain. 

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