CoVid reinfection is likely

[SmartVoter22]

Like the seasonal flu, CoVid is a virus.
You can catch it, more than once.

There are cases of re-infection of CoVid and some have had serious hospitalizations & complications, after secondary exposure.

Reinfection of CoVid is likely (not guarateed) to have less severe symptoms and shorter durations of illnesses, but that does not mean immune.
It may only mean that your own immunity may provide some resistance to CoVid's symptoms; but not it's more severe complications.

If our immunity could stop it, we would not need to develop a vaccine.

[mrs_p]

1. There is a serious flaw in your argument

We need a vaccine not because we can’t become immune (which actually a vaccine is designed to induce), but because the illness can kill you before you can become immune.

Also, the cases of possible re-infection are not clear. In some instances, it is thought it was actually a lingering infection.

[Phoenix61]

2. If covid reinfection is likely then there would be

no reason to develop a vaccine. The whole premise of a vaccine is to trigger an immune response to a particular virus so it doesn’t cause illness if you are exposed to it. The seasonal flu is caused by any number of flu viruses. Each year they guess which ones will be most prevalent and develop a vaccine for those specific flu viruses. Some years they guess correctly but some years they don’t.

[Silent3]

3. You can't be sure. What matters is the mutation rate, and the duration of immunity

So far, while it has been reported, cases of COVID re-infection are both rare, and often uncertain.

Flu viruses mutate quickly, and there are many different strains that go around, typically varying each year. When you get the flu more than once, it's almost always a different variation of the flu.

So far, COVID-19 appears to mutate slowly.

"If our immunity could stop it, we would not need to develop a vaccine."

Sorry, but that doesn't make much sense. Vaccines work by activating our own immune systems defenses, vaccines don't directly provide protection themselves. When a vaccine works, it is your own immune system protecting you. The only difference is that you immune response was initially activated by something much safer than the actual disease.

[FBaggins]

4. Incorrect. The seasonal flu is not a virus

It's dozens of viruses. You're generally safe from the ones that you've had before.

It's also important to note that while there seem to be a handful of confirmed reinfections (as you say... almost always insignificant)... that's out of tens of millions of cases of initial infection. If reinfection were a significant threat, you would expect to see many more examples.

[WSHazel]

5. If we can't get immunity, then humanity is in big trouble

A vaccine effectively teaches your immune system to fight a virus or bacteria. If our body can't learn on its own, then a vaccine is unlikely to be significantly more successful.

That said, there are definitely cases of someone getting it twice. Nothing is 100%, and hopefully these cases are outliers.

All that said, there has never been a successful vaccine to a coronavirus, although I believe they were close on SARS before it went away. Part of the reason for this is there is not a lot of money in a vaccine for the common cold.

There is another theory out there, that the virus is getting weaker on its own. Anyone that lived through March or April 2020 in the tri-state area will tell you that what we are going through now is nothing like it was back then around NYC, despite many more people being infected now. None of the stock arguments (better treatment, better social distancing) really address this fact. There were 423 deaths yesterday from a virus that has infected the entire country. On April 21, there were 2,748 from a virus that was in 5-6 states. Something is happening to the virus.

The virus weakening is logical from an evolutionary standpoint, and it is likely that one of the current strains of the common cold comes from a pandemic that hit in the early 19th century. Viruses do get weaker over time as the more virulent strains kill their host and don't replicate, while the weaker strains survive.

If the virus is weakening, then the right move for society is to maintain social distancing and "run out the clock" on it. We could be down to under 100 deaths a day by next summer if we just stay safe. If we open up too fast, we give the more virulent strains a chance to find new hosts.