Originally Posted by
Fluidic Cameron
My understanding is that you get infected, and then the virus replicates itself inside your body. So you start with somebody sneezing near you giving you maybe 1,000 viruses. So then each of these replicates inside your body to yield 2,000, then 4,000, then 8,000, then 16,000, then 32,000. The number keeps growing and growing until your immune system figures out how to destroy the virus. So then simultaneously in your body, two things are happening:
(A) The virus is replicating
(B) Your immune system is destroying viruses
At the beginning, A is faster than B, so your viral load just keeps increasing and increasing.
Then you get to a point where A and B are the same speed, so now your viral load is constant. It remains at the same level.
Finally as your body produces more and more antibodies, B becomes faster than A and so your entire viral load gets wiped out.
So after you've wiped out the virus, you still have loads of antibodies in your blood that quickly destroy any new coronavirus that comes in.
These antibodies won't reduce in number until your body doesn't see coronavirus for a few months, so you're immune for maybe about a year.
But let's say you get infected with coronavirus, you pull through and you have antibodies, but then 18 months goes by without your body seeing another coronavirus. Well in this case, your body already knows how to destroy the virus so it will very quickly generate the correct antibodies (although it might take a few days for your antibody count to rise, so you might have the sniffles for a few days).
But let's be realistic here: If coronavirus is a pandemic all over the world then you probably don't need to worry about going a few months without seeing it. I wouldn't be surprised if I've been infected 5 different times by 5 different people so far. And I hope more people infect me so my immune system can keep sparing.
craving alcohol (quarantine)
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