# Is intentional infection with a less virulent strain of coronavirus a way to build immunity **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 27, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intentional-infection-with-a-less-virulent-strain-of-coronavirus-a-way-to-build-immunity/850446 "2020-03-27T19:09:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intentional-infection-with-a-less-virulent-strain-of-coronavirus-a-way-to-build-immunity/850446/1 "2020-03-27T19:09:28Z")
With smallpox, it was found that infection with cowpox led to antibodies that could fight the more severe smallpox disease. My understanding is that other viruses in the coronavirus family can just cause a mild cold. Has there been research on intentionally infecting people with a milder version of coronavirus to see if it creates immunity from the stronger SARS-Cov-2 strain going around? What about (as a thought experiment) mutating the SARS-Cov-2 strain to creating a virus that is less lethal, but has a higher R0. Wouldn’t that eventually push the COVID virus out and create herd immunity? Create a highly contagious mild cold coronavirus that infectsw people before they get infected by the stronger SARS-Cov2 virus. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intentional-infection-with-a-less-virulent-strain-of-coronavirus-a-way-to-build-immunity/850446/2 "2020-03-27T19:41:22Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What about (as a thought experiment) mutating the SARS-Cov-2 strain to creating a virus that is less lethal, but has a higher R0. Wouldn’t that eventually push the COVID virus out and create herd immunity? Create a highly contagious mild cold coronavirus that infectsw people before they get infected by the stronger SARS-Cov2 virus. In theory, sure. Creating a virus with tremendous communicability but that does little harm, and which creates immunicty to SARS-CoV-2, would be awesome. It’s not easy to do, though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intentional-infection-with-a-less-virulent-strain-of-coronavirus-a-way-to-build-immunity/850446/3 "2020-03-27T22:23:14Z")
There are a bunch of various approaches under investigation: > **[COVID-19 vaccine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine)** > > A COVID‑19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19). > Prior to the COVID‑19 pandemic, an established body of knowledge existed about the structure and function of coronaviruses causing diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). This knowledge accelerated the development of various vaccine plat... ---
**Author:** ![MaverocK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@MaverocK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaverocK)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intentional-infection-with-a-less-virulent-strain-of-coronavirus-a-way-to-build-immunity/850446/4 "2020-03-28T04:41:10Z")
What I am extremely curious about is if SARS-CoV-1 survivors (early 2000 outbreak) can better fight SARS-CoV-2. ---
**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intentional-infection-with-a-less-virulent-strain-of-coronavirus-a-way-to-build-immunity/850446/5 "2020-03-28T14:54:23Z")
It’s still way too early to tell if it works. There are many viruses that provide immunity because they are closely related. However this certainly isn’t always the case. For example Marburg virus and Ebola virus are all closely related. Originally the only way to tell them apart was that they produced significantly different antibodies.