Immunity and the coronavirus

Immunity and the coronavirus

For testing capabilities.

When the coronavirus that causes covid-19 first started to spread, virtually no one was immune.

Antibody testing like we just explained has opened the door to see "who" is immune.

News 10's dominic miranda spoke with a local professor of immunology today.

He joins us now with more on all of this... plus how the concept of "herd immunity" is crucial.

Dominic miranda dominic.miranda@wthitv.com <mailto:dominic.miranda@wth... om herd immunity is when most of a population is immune to an infectious disease... in this case covid-19.

This would provide indirect protection to those who are not immune.

I spoke with dr steve templeton.

He works with immunology for the iu school of medicine.

He broke down why this is an important concept.

Herd immunity is typically considered when vaccines are developed.

You want to have a significant amount of a population vaccinated so it slows the spread of covid-19 dramatically.

Since there is no vaccine for the coronavirus right now... antibody testing is a crucial first step to really slowing the spread.

Templeton says numbers are coming in from some states, including indiana, and immunity numbers are much higher than anticipated.

This is a good thing.

He told me this round of antibody testing will give us a whole new perspective on the path of slowing down this virus.

Dr steve templeton, associate professor of immunology at iu school of medicine-terre haute campus "i like to think of it as looking at an iceberg above the water.

You're only seeing about 10% of what's above the water and when you realize the other 90% is below the water you have a totally different perspective.

I think that's what this antibody testing is going to give us."

Dominic miranda dominic.miranda@wthitv.com mailto:dominic.miranda@wthi... m templeton told me the idea that many people can get covid19 and have an immune response is encouraging.

He says for this virus, 60-70% immune is expected to be required to achieve herd immunity.

He says we may be a ways off, but this is a very promising start.

In th i'm dm news 10.> tonight cloudy during the early evening, then the early cloudy during tonight