Dr. Varshavski: There's been some talk about the possibility of reinfection with COVID-19. Now do you think that this is a more an issue with testing, that the test remains positive, or are they truly being infected for a second time with the virus?
Dr. Fauci: You know, I don't know the answer to that 100%, but I would be willing to bet on my experience, and I'll bet your experience, that any virus that you have, if you do well, recover, and clear the virus, if it acts like any other virus, you're going to have lasting immunity. You're not going to get reinfected, you're just not.
Dr. Varshavski: The way that I've thought about it is, there's certain illnesses where you get lifelong immunity, chicken pox, measles with your two vaccinations, so maybe this won't be lifelong immunity, but to say there's none, where you can get reinfected in two weeks, something seems off.
Dr. Fauci: No, that's inconceivable to me that that's the case. I mean, you're going to have some degree of durable immunity. You're right, it may not be 50 years, but it's certainly going to be a matter of a few years.
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