THE TIMES: Coronavirus: Quest for immunity is biggest fight of our life

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Dan Davis is professor of immunology at Manchester University, author of The Beautiful Cure, a book about the immune system, and a fully accredited geeky immunologist. “This is a crucial frontier that is shortly going to be of paramount importance,” he begins rather more promisingly. And his answer? “The truth is, it’s a really important gap in our knowledge. It’s a little bit mysterious.”

There is no shame in this — scientists happily admit that sometimes they operate at the edge of knowledge. But it is, nevertheless, a shame. Because as Professor Davis suggests, this question, currently, is really rather important.

On it hangs trillions of pounds and tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of lives. If an antibody test shows you have had coronavirus, does that mean you are immune to coronavirus? And for how long?