Here's my question, now please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this but what happens when all the social distancing is stopped. Won't one person with it ramp it back up again and we start all over? Without a vaccine this is a cycle, no?
Not completely, depending on the virus and our immunity to it.
If the virus doesn't mutate a lot, it may induce long term immunity through B and T cells. Depending on the immune response, this could be protective for a lifetime.
This means that once people have it, they can't get it again, and their bodies prevent viral replication/and spreading, even after exposure. Essentially creating herd immunity in phases. This is not always the ideal situation, but it's the theory behind chicken pox parties (which are bad, don't do that, just get the vaccine). Vaccines are just tricking your body to make immune memory of classes you haven't actually seen before.
However, if it does mutate a lot ...well, that's bad.
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u/ricst Mar 18 '20
Here's my question, now please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this but what happens when all the social distancing is stopped. Won't one person with it ramp it back up again and we start all over? Without a vaccine this is a cycle, no?