Boris Johnson is self-isolating in Downing Street after hosting an MP who subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. As we all know, Johnson has already been affected by SARS-Co-V2. So can the Prime Minister, who has presumably built immunity to this virus, be reinfected? For once the answer is clear: it’s possible.
We know this thanks to the work of the Medical Research Council’s Common Cold Unit (CCU). The unit, which worked on the site of a WWII American Red Cross base near Salisbury, ran over a thousand studies between 1946 and 1989. One of its last projects analysed the time course of the immune response to experimental coronavirus infection of man.
Fifteen volunteers were infected with coronavirus 229E. They were followed up for 52 weeks with frequent nasal washings and had blood samples taken. After a year, volunteers returned for a standard challenge trial in which the same coronavirus strain was inserted into their noses.
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