Question: Got any good news? 

Answer: Two studies were published in the last few days that offer some good news regarding effective treatment and lasting immunity:

1. Effective treatment: The New England Journal and Medicine published this week the results of a randomized controlled study, Early High-Titer Plasma Therapy to Prevent Severe Covid-19 in Older Adults, which showed that if given to older patients (ages 65+) early after symptom onset (within 72 hours), convalescent plasma (e.g. blood plasma from people already recovered from COVID) can significantly reduce the risk of severe disease (nearly halving the risk of severe respiratory disease; 48% relative risk reduction among treatment group compared with placebo group).  Of the 80 participants who received convalescent plasma, 13 (16%) developed severe disease whereas of the 80 participants who received placebo, 25 (31%) developed severe disease.  For this study, severe disease primary endpoints were defined as “a respiratory rate of 30 breaths per minute or more, an oxygen saturation of less than 93% while the patient was breathing ambient air, or both.”
2. Lasting immunity: Science published this week the results of a longitudinal cohort study, Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection, which studied SARS-CoV-2 immune memory– antibodies, memory B cells, CD4+ T cells, and CD8+T cells– over time among 188 participants who had recovered from mild, moderate, and severe COVID, including a few participants who recovered from asymptomatic infection. 51 participants provided blood samples at multiple time points, allowing for longitudinal study, and 43 participants provided samples >6 months after symptom onset. Researchers found that 5-8 months post-symptom onset, almost all individuals had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies; memory B cells were detected in almost all COVID-19 cases, with no apparent decline within 5 to 8 months post-infection; and memory T cells declined over time, but were comparable to levels observed after yellow fever immunization.  Overall, the study shows that “durable immunity against secondary COVID-19 disease is a possibility in most individuals.”