Inside the debate over how long Covid-19 lasts in the body
An Antarctic expedition in the 1960s hints that respiratory viruses can linger inside us longer than we think
This is Natalie. When I first spoke with her, she hadn't left her parents' basement in 43 days because she’d tested positive for Covid-19 twice—four weeks apart—and feared infecting her family. Why do folks like her keep testing positive?
For the last two months I've been investigating this mystery, and in my reporting I've learned how everything from Antarctic explorers to tonsillectomies in Brazil might give us clues to why. The story is a whopper, and if you'd like to read it, click here: The Mystery of Why Some People Keep Testing Positive for Covid-19
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I also have a recent story in National Geographic, in case you missed it. It’s all about how our thymus gland starts shrinking right after puberty, and what that means for the immune system’s ability to fight Covid-19. By age 40 or 50, the thymus has exhausted most of its reserve of the kind of T-cells that can learn to recognize unfamiliar pathogens—and ‘train’ other immune cells to fight them. Many vaccines rely on such T-cells. Here's my article about what this all means for coping with the new coronavirus: Why those most at risk of COVID-19 are least likely to respond to a vaccine
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I hope that you find these two articles informative. I’m taking this next week off and then diving into a bigger story on Covid-19. Stay safe and thanks for reading.