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Enlarge / T-cells attacking a cell recognized as foreign. (credit: NIH)

Ultimately, the only way for societies to return to some semblance of normal in the wake of the current pandemic is to reach a state called herd immunity. This is where a large-enough percentage of the population has acquired immunity to SARS-CoV-2—either through infection or a vaccine—that most people exposed to the virus are already immune to it. This will mean that the infection rate will slow and eventually fizzle out, protecting society as a whole.

Given that this is our ultimate goal, we need to understand how the immune system responds to this virus. Most of what we know is based on a combination of what we know about other coronavirus that infect humans and the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2. But now, data is coming in on the response of T-cells, and it indicates that their response is more complex: longer-lasting, broadly based, and including an overlap with the response to prior coronavirus infections. What this means for the prospect of long-lasting protection remains unclear.

What we know now

SARS-CoV-2 is one of seven coronaviruses known to infect humans. Some of these, like SARS and MERS, have only made the jump to humans recently. While more lethal than SARS-CoV-2, we are fortunate that they spread among humans less efficiently. These viruses seem to provoke a long-lasting immune response following infections. That's a sharp contrast to the four coronaviruses that circulate widely with humans, causing cold-like symptoms. These viruses induce an immunity that seems to last less than a year.

Enlarge / NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 25: The Statue of Liberty is seen behind refrigeration trucks that function as temporary morgues at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal during the coronavirus pandemic. (credit: Getty | Noam Galai)

Officials in Texas and Arizona have requested refrigerated trucks to hold the dead as hospitals and morgues become overwhelmed by victims of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the hospital, there are only so many places to put bodies,” Ken Davis, chief medical officer of Christus Santa Rosa Health System in the San Antonio area, said in a briefing this week. “We're out of space, and our funeral homes are out of space, and we need those beds. So, when someone dies, we need to quickly turn that bed over.

“It’s a hard thing to talk about,” Davis added. “People's loved ones are dying."

Enlarge / The James Webb Space Telescope is now due to launch in October 2021. (credit: NASA)

NASA officials announced Thursday they are now targeting a launch date of October 31, 2021, for the James Webb Space Telescope. This represents a seven-month delay from the previously announced March 2021 date for the $10 billion telescope that will allow scientists to observe deeper into the universe than ever before.

In a teleconference, NASA scientists explained that the latest delay has been driven primarily by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only have employees at NASA and the telescope's primary contractor, Northrop Grumman, lost work time—they were working two shifts prior to the onset of the pandemic—the new schedule factors in the potential for additional lost time due to the virus.

Because of the additional margin in the schedule, the NASA officials expressed confidence in the new date. "We're not expecting to go beyond October 31st," said Gregory Robinson, NASA's Webb program director.