How so? The article says exactly what you are saying. Or are you talking about other news outlets?
“My hope is that while reinfection has been documented, it is a rare or uncommon occurrence,” Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who was not involved in the research, told MedPage Today . “So far that seems to be the case, but we’re still only a few months into this pandemic.”
Matthew Spinelli, MD, of University of California San Francisco, said this was an important study, but unsurprising since people are often reinfected with seasonal coronaviruses responsible for common colds.
It did too note that it was a minor infection.
“We saw what we would’ve expected to see,” Spinelli, who was not involved with the research, told MedPage Today . “It’s good he had no symptoms the second time. … It shows some degree of immunity, but not enough to prevent asymptomatic infection.”
The article repeatedly emphasized that the results were expected, not shocking.
When asked about implications for COVID-19 vaccine development, Spinelli noted that no vaccine to a respiratory virus like this is expected to be 100% effective – much like the flu shot, which reduces infection incidence and illness severity but only to a degree.
“The fact that the second infection had much reduced severity is what we’d expect to see with a vaccine. Hopefully, a vaccine will induce more rigorous immunity,” he said.
Maybe the accompanying image was a bit sensationalizing, but I didn’t think the reporting was. " First Case of COVID-19 Reinfection Confirmed" is hardly “Oh, no, we’re all going to die!” And contrary to expectations the comment section is actually helpful, and helped contextualize the results even further. While it may be the case that reinfections are not serious health-wise, they may potentially be an issue with control of spread if there is enough viral shed with a second infection, which would be good to aware of. I have heard people say, “I don’t need to wear a mask, I’ve already had it.” Is that true? Do we even know?