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How to avoid catching COVID-19 a second time
FOX 26 Reporter Ivory Hecker speaks with survivors of COVID-19 about how they've changed their habits after catching the disease.
HOUSTON - A lot is still unknown about what can happen after someone recovers from coronavirus, and doctors say until more is known about the antibodies that develop, masks, social distancing, and hand washing should be continued, regardless of whether you’ve already overcome coronavirus COVID-19.
FOX 26 talked to two Houstonians who’ve had the virus about how they’re approaching life now.
“On Father’s Day I was in the ER,” said Enrique Carrillo who caught coronavirus COVID-19 in June at a time when he wasn’t wearing masks or social distancing. “I was just going out, just living life like it wasn’t even out there, and I ended up getting it, and now I’m more responsible. I think this is where we all have to be more responsible for going out there, wearing our masks.”
It took 18 days to get back to normal, and he wears masks more after COVID-19 thank before.
“The word on the street has been that you can get it again,” said Vincent Powell who took three weeks to recover after catching COVID-19 In March. “I wasn’t going to protests. I was not going to go into any large numbers of people.”
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Those who’ve overcome the virus have good reason to stay cautious, said Dr. Prathit Kulkarni who studies infectious disease at Baylor College of Medicine.
“We just don’t know enough yet,” said Kulkarni. “We still have a lot to learn about the natural history of immunity after recovering from COVID-19. What we know from other coronaviruses is that people can have different time periods of having immunity against other coronaviruses, and then over time immunity can in fact go down. In some cases it can be several months. In some cases it can be years.”
Dr. Kulkarni says research is underway now to better understand the antibodies that develop after COVID-19, but in the meantime, even if you’ve had the virus, you should still practice the mask-wearing, social distancing and hand washing to ensure you don’t catch it again.