Record numbers of new COVID-19 infections are filling up the nation’s hospitals and morgues just days before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is likely to approve the first coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. But there’s a perverse silver lining to this lethal spike in infections: Every American who catches and recovers from COVID has a chance of retaining some degree of immunity for months or even years—all without the help of an expensive, difficult-to-distribute vaccine.
Those millions of former COVID patients and their lingering antibodies and T-cells could contribute to the population-level immunity that might signal the end of the current pandemic. In a weird and tragic way, America’s massive failure to slow COVID infections pre-vaccine could actually help speed up post-vaccine immunization efforts by reducing, potentially by tens of millions, the number of Americans who need shots.
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