Facing Three Fundamental Coronavirus Fears
By: Bo Stapler
Tags: Health, Science, Wellness, Coronavirus, Covid 19

1. Since immunity to the novel coronavirus may not last long, doesn’t the virus need to be eradicated in order for the pandemic to end?

Humans generally become immune to a pathogen after immunization or recovery from an infection. Depending on the particular disease or vaccine as well as host characteristics such as the age and health of the individual, immunity can last a lifetime or may be short-lived. Moreover, immunity is not an ‘either/or’ process. Our immunity to different pathogens doesn’t just suddenly switch off. Instead, it wanes over time.

It is true that a person’s immunity to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, probably only lasts a few months to a few years. It is also true that outbreaks of two other coronaviruses earlier this century, SARS and MERS, were indeed contained, although not technically eradicated. However, the other four known human coronaviruses, HCoV-229E, -NL63, -OC43, and -HKU1, are considered endemic. These viruses, which have been around longer than the other three, are continuously circulating through the population and typically cause no more symptoms than the common cold.

Interestingly, there is historical evidence that the four endemic coronaviruses were likely the cause of pandemics, or at least epidemics, in the past. Of course, this would have been long enough ago that people didn’t know what a coronavirus was, but humankind managed to recover anyway. These older coronaviruses now permeate among the population. People often become exposed at a young age, and, as with SARS-CoV-2, the vast majority of children have no symptoms or a minor respiratory infection. Even though immunity to these viruses diminishes over time, because they are endemic and continuously circulate through the population, every few years our immune systems are again exposed and receive a refresher course on how to kill the virus.

With possible exception to geographically isolated locations like Iceland and New Zealand, SARS-CoV-2 is on a path to becoming endemic like its older endemic coronavirus siblings. In fact, since March, for most regions containment has no longer been a strategy for managing SARS-CoV-2 as it was during the previous SARS and MERS outbreaks. SARS and MERS have a higher fatality rate than Covid-19, and it is for that very reason they were able to be contained. Since patients infected with SARS and MERS were more often symptomatic, generally developed more severe symptoms, and had a shorter period of time between exposure and the onset of symptoms, cases were recognized sooner, contacts were more easily traced, and further spread was prevented through quarantining.

“The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly, and too broadly for the U.S. to bring it under control with testing and contact tracing.” — Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC Deputy Director, 6/29/20

While contact tracing and quarantining strategies remain important during the Covid-19 pandemic, they are aimed at protecting vulnerable groups and reducing the overall transmission of the virus rather than ultimately containing or eradicating the virus. At this point eliminating SARS-CoV-2 worldwide is essentially impossible. Fortunately, however, as was the case with the four endemic coronaviruses, eradication is not a requirement for the pandemic to end.