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• public health
• strategy
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• efficiency

A week ago, I began experiencing fevers, a persistent headache and strange muscle pains in my legs. As a physician working in Florida, I was pretty sure I knew what was going on. Later that day, I tested positive for coronavirus. I was lucky to have a mild course. I began my quarantine and wondered if I would be immune when I returned to the hospital. If recovered providers are unable to be reinfected—or, at least less likely to be than those who have never contracted the virus—what would be the implications?

The evidence on reinfection is mixed.1–3 An initial study the Korean Center for Disease Control was hopeful. Researchers had identified 285 individuals who had recovered from coronavirus and, at a later date, tested positive again. However, of the ‘re-positive’ cases, viral cell cultures were negative in all of them and contact tracing showed that no new cases could be tracked to any of these re-positive individuals.4

Less optimistic news came on 18 June, when …