<story><title>Surviving the coronavirus, then testing positive again</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-13/china-japan-korea-coronavirus-reinfection-test-positive</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>throwaway_pdp09</author><text>&amp;quot;it&amp;#x27;s hot [in Qatar].&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I used to live in that part of the world. Air conditioning and  active cooling is pervasive there. In a sense, people&amp;#x27;s exposure to the overwhelming heat of the day is perhaps much more limited than you might expect.&lt;p&gt;There are surprisingly few cases in Africa (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.newscientist.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;2236760-we-dont-know-why-so-few-covid-19-cases-have-been-reported-in-africa&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.newscientist.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;2236760-we-dont-know-wh...&lt;/a&gt;) and Africa is a poorer continent in general, and perhaps aircon is much more limited there than that area of Arabia. Maybe there&amp;#x27;s a link.</text></item><item><author>leesec</author><text>1. Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice?&lt;p&gt;No, doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to be, but you might still have &amp;quot;viral shedding&amp;quot; for a bit even after you are &amp;quot;recovered&amp;quot;. meaning you could still be contagious.&lt;p&gt;4. There&amp;#x27;s evidence that there are multiple strains, can you get both strains?&lt;p&gt;You shouldn&amp;#x27;t think about them as multiple strains, as of now it is 1 disease.&lt;p&gt;5. What&amp;#x27;s the likelihood that a mutation will occur once treatment is more widespread?&lt;p&gt;Mutations occur all the time, there are already 10&amp;#x27;s of known mutations of virus, it doesn&amp;#x27;t mean there are 10 separate diseases.&lt;p&gt;6. Does the heat make it significantly less likely for you to get COVID-19?&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s some evidence warm weather slows spread for viruses like this, but we can&amp;#x27;t assume that about this virus yet. A good counterpoint is Qatar adding 258 cases in one day, it&amp;#x27;s hot there.</text></item><item><author>newfeatureok</author><text>There are some questions I haven&amp;#x27;t been able to find good answers to in addition to the one posed in the article:&lt;p&gt;1. Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice?&lt;p&gt;2. If (1) is true, are the symptoms the same (if applicable)?&lt;p&gt;3. If (1) is true are you still contagious?&lt;p&gt;4. There&amp;#x27;s evidence that there are multiple strains, can you get both strains?&lt;p&gt;5. What&amp;#x27;s the likelihood that a mutation will occur once treatment is more widespread?&lt;p&gt;6. Does the heat make it significantly less likely for you to get COVID-19?&lt;p&gt;My impression so far is that we&amp;#x27;ll never get rid of this thing, and at &lt;i&gt;best&lt;/i&gt; this will be something like the seasonal flu, where we&amp;#x27;ll just have to live with it and great shots yearly.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>notahacker</author><text>Africa generally being a poorer continent also means a lot less travel to spread the disease, especially international travel from Asia and Europe, and the potential for local outbreaks to pass unnoticed due to lack of medical care, especially if symptoms for most young people are benign, and elderly people dying at the first sign of infection is a common occurrence</text></comment>
<story><title>Surviving the coronavirus, then testing positive again</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-13/china-japan-korea-coronavirus-reinfection-test-positive</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>throwaway_pdp09</author><text>&amp;quot;it&amp;#x27;s hot [in Qatar].&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I used to live in that part of the world. Air conditioning and  active cooling is pervasive there. In a sense, people&amp;#x27;s exposure to the overwhelming heat of the day is perhaps much more limited than you might expect.&lt;p&gt;There are surprisingly few cases in Africa (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.newscientist.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;2236760-we-dont-know-why-so-few-covid-19-cases-have-been-reported-in-africa&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.newscientist.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;2236760-we-dont-know-wh...&lt;/a&gt;) and Africa is a poorer continent in general, and perhaps aircon is much more limited there than that area of Arabia. Maybe there&amp;#x27;s a link.</text></item><item><author>leesec</author><text>1. Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice?&lt;p&gt;No, doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to be, but you might still have &amp;quot;viral shedding&amp;quot; for a bit even after you are &amp;quot;recovered&amp;quot;. meaning you could still be contagious.&lt;p&gt;4. There&amp;#x27;s evidence that there are multiple strains, can you get both strains?&lt;p&gt;You shouldn&amp;#x27;t think about them as multiple strains, as of now it is 1 disease.&lt;p&gt;5. What&amp;#x27;s the likelihood that a mutation will occur once treatment is more widespread?&lt;p&gt;Mutations occur all the time, there are already 10&amp;#x27;s of known mutations of virus, it doesn&amp;#x27;t mean there are 10 separate diseases.&lt;p&gt;6. Does the heat make it significantly less likely for you to get COVID-19?&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s some evidence warm weather slows spread for viruses like this, but we can&amp;#x27;t assume that about this virus yet. A good counterpoint is Qatar adding 258 cases in one day, it&amp;#x27;s hot there.</text></item><item><author>newfeatureok</author><text>There are some questions I haven&amp;#x27;t been able to find good answers to in addition to the one posed in the article:&lt;p&gt;1. Is it possible to get COVID-19 twice?&lt;p&gt;2. If (1) is true, are the symptoms the same (if applicable)?&lt;p&gt;3. If (1) is true are you still contagious?&lt;p&gt;4. There&amp;#x27;s evidence that there are multiple strains, can you get both strains?&lt;p&gt;5. What&amp;#x27;s the likelihood that a mutation will occur once treatment is more widespread?&lt;p&gt;6. Does the heat make it significantly less likely for you to get COVID-19?&lt;p&gt;My impression so far is that we&amp;#x27;ll never get rid of this thing, and at &lt;i&gt;best&lt;/i&gt; this will be something like the seasonal flu, where we&amp;#x27;ll just have to live with it and great shots yearly.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>teruakohatu</author><text>There could be less testing in Africa, so less confirmed cases. Here in New Zealand we have had only 5 cases with no increase in days, yet very close links to China and Australia and cool fall weather, making me wonder if and how many undiagnosed cases there are.</text></comment>