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Millions of Americans are in the process of getting vaccinated against the virus, along with many more around the world. But despite the fact that the slow rollout of vaccines means the United States will not achieve herd immunity in the coming months, a study published Tuesday in Science also suggests that COVID-19 is ‘here to stay’, The New York Times reports.
Right now, COVID-19 is incredibly dangerous and often fatal because it is brand new to the human body. But once people’s immune systems are initiated to the virus, either by contracting it or hopefully from a vaccine, they will be better able to fight the virus. Things are different for children, who have strong immune systems because they are constantly confronted with new viruses and pathogens in their bodies. For example, they start contracting coronaviruses from the common cold around the age of 3-5 and fight them off, boosting immunity when infected again and again over the years.
So, once most Americans are vaccinated, serious coronavirus infections are likely to still – albeit rarely – occur in adults. Then, years or decades later, these severe reactions will likely go away due to the increased immunity in adults, said Jennie Lavine, a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University, who led the study. Times. That’s when COVID-19 will likely join the league of endemic coronaviruses that cause the common cold, Lavine and his team predicted after comparing COVID-19 to other coronaviruses. And again, due to the immunity acquired by adults, COVID-19 will likely only infect children under the age of five – and they will likely only end up with a few sniffles or no symptoms.
Read more on The New York Times and find the whole study on Science.
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