Mild coronavirus infection leaves behind lasting antibody protection, research suggests

Even a mild case of coronavirus could leave people with lifelong protection against the virus, a new study suggests, with researchers calling previous reports that immunity was not long-lived following infection “a misinterpretation of the data.”

The team compared those samples with bone marrow taken from 11 people who had never been diagnosed with COVID-19.  While antibody levels in the blood of people who had previous infections did drop quickly in the first few months before mostly leveling off, some antibodies were detectable even 11 months after infection. Researchers also found antibody-producing cells specifically targeting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in 15 of the bone marrow samples. The cells were also found in all five of the follow-up samples given four months later.