Over half of the U.S. population has had a COVID-19 infection and as cases rise, but hospitalizations stay comparatively low, what does that mean for our immunity as a group?
Dr. David Dowdy, Epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told KCBS Radio's "Ask An Expert" that infection severity is dropping, but eradicating the COVID-19 virus from the globe is no longer a realistic goal.
"We didn't know it back at the time, but our immunity against this virus helps to keep it from becoming a serious illness, but not from getting infected over a long period of time," he said. "So even if you've been infected once or twice or even three times, you can get infected again."
The average COVID-19 infection has dramatically reduced in severity over the past two years as the virus mutates and people build antibodies through vaccination, boosting and infection. However, Dowdy said he would caution people on assuming the virus is just a common cold.
"Just because the average case is milder doesn't mean we aren't still having serious cases that are landing people in the hospital and even still killing people," he warned. "It is difficult to strike that balance."
People are able to contract COVID-19 multiple times, however, a silver lining is that the symptoms should get less severe with each infection. "As our body builds up immunity to this virus, it learns how to deal with it," he explained. This is the body's common response to COVID-19, but it may not apply to everyone, he added.
Hopefully, the long term outcome of this disease is that it's a mild respiratory infection for most people, but not one that's going to be wiped off the face of the earth, Dowdy said.
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