COVID X VIRAL BURST

More and more COVID-19 patients are recovering only to experience a recurrence of the illness several days later. Once again testing positive. Have there been viruses in the past with this feature? What does it mean for the possibility of a vaccine?

I suspect it's a phenomena called “viral burst.”

When a virus infects a host, it hijacks the hosts' cells' DNA and replicating system. It injects it's own DNA into the system causing it to now replicate the virus. It keeps churning out virus particles into the cell until the cell the particles occupy burst. The newly created virus particles travel throughout the host, find new cells to infect, and the cycle starts again.

While the virus particles are circulating throughout the host's body, the host's immune system can work to eliminate them. This is when the host may start feeling symptoms, fever, aches, chills, etc. This is the immune system working.

So, the immune system seems to be eliminating the virus, the host feels the effects but after a time period, seems to feel better. But, then the hijacked cells burst, new virus particles are released into the host, and the immune system is activated. The host starts to feel sick, again.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

If the host's immune system is capable enough, it eventually clears out enough of the virus particles that they “hijack” fewer and fewer cells and eventually die off.

But, there may be several “cycles” where the host seems to recover, then feels sick.

Vaccines against viruses usually involve using dead or inactivated live virus. Inactivated viruses can't invade the host's cells. But different viruses have different methods of invading hosts' cells. That takes time and study to make a deactivated virus for a vaccine.

This gives the immune system a “picture” of what to “attack” if the host is ever exposed to the virus.