Health and Medicine
PUBLISHED
An investigation of the Covid-19 outbreak that ripped through the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier has found that about 60 percent of almost 400 sailors tested had antibodies for the disease.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The case study, published by the US CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Tuesday, could provide some important clues about Covid-19 and immunity in healthy young people.
Starting in March, a huge Covid-19 outbreak took on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier while the ship was out in the western Pacific. The enclosed and crowded conditions allowed the virus to spread like wildfire and well over 1,000 crew ended up contracting Covid-19. One serviceman, 41-year-old Charles Thacker Jr, died of complications related to the infection. While the handling of the outbreak aboard the aircraft carrier became embroiled in controversy, it’s since provided scientists with an ideal case study to dissect.
Scientists from the CDC and the US Navy gathered 382 young adults from the aircraft carrier and found 60 percent had reactive antibodies, and 59 percent of those also had neutralizing antibodies. In a small number of cases, the antibodies were tested and detected over three months after symptom onset, indicating that immunity could last for several months in some instances.
“The presence of neutralizing antibodies among the majority is a promising indicator of at least short-term immunity,” the researchers write in their report.
On top of that, the new study found just one-fifth of infected participants who tested positive for Covid-19 reported no symptoms. Although men had a slightly higher risk of becoming infected, they did not find any significant differences in regards to age, race, ethnicity, or history of a pre-existing medical condition.
The case study provides an interesting snapshot of how Covid-19 might affect a population of young and healthy people, but there are limitations that should be considered. Some medical groups, such as the American Medical Association (AMA), have warned that serology tests that look for antibodies in a person’s blood can lead to false-positive results. Many conclusions about immunity gathered from Covid-19 antibody tests should be taken lightly until more robust evidence is brought to the table.
“Given that we do not yet have scientific evidence showing if, when and for how long individuals might become immune to Covid-19, physicians and the general public should not use antibody testing to consider anyone immune to the disease – doing so may lead individuals to falsely assume they can stop physical distancing and further the spread of illness,” Dr Patrice A Harris, president of the AMA, said in a statement published on May 14.
