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Are repeat COVID infections dangerous? What the science says

Researchers disagree over how bad it is to be reinfected, and whether COVID-19 can cause lasting changes to the immune system.
  1. Cassandra Willyard

    1. Cassandra Willyard is a science journalist in Madison, Wisconsin.

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When the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was a strange and terrifying adversary that plunged the world into chaos. More than three years later, the infection’s symptoms are all too familiar and COVID-19 is here to stay — part of a long list of common diseases that infect humans. Experts estimate that the majority of the world’s population has been infected at least once; in the United States, some estimates suggest that as many as 65% of people have had multiple infections1. And it’s likely that in the decades to come, we’re all destined to get COVID-19 many more times.

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Nature 616, 650-652 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01371-9

Updates & Corrections

  • Clarification 11 May 2023: An earlier version of this feature missed out one of the UK charities conducting the survey of nearly 600 people with long COVID. Long Covid Kids conducted the survey together with Long Covid Support.

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