MACON, Ga. — You've been asking questions about the novel coronavirus.
Dr. Lance Slade is a pediatrician who's been tracking the COVID-19 situation closely.
13WMAZ took your questions to him.
Terry Herndon wanted to know: Can you get COVID-19 more than once?
"That's a great question," Slade said. "When you get an illness you get antibodies and you get some help to be able to have immunity to it. We just don't know how long. You know, maybe a year. So, it could be that she comes back a year later. The duration -- we're not sure how long you keep that immunity from the same illness. We're just not sure the duration of how long you would be safe from that same bug."
Joyce Gregory wanted to know about how to protect people who are in the high-risk category.
Gregory says she has multiple medical conditions and upcoming medical appointments over the next few weeks.
Should she cancel them?
"That's a great question and one we're dealing with at our house," Slade said. "So my mother in law has knee pain. She probably needs an injection for that pain. So, we just, you know, had called her doctor and we rescheduled it for a few weeks later to avoid being out. We're talking now -- these older folks or people that have medical conditions -- if they could avoid being in public I think that will help them."
"But when you have underlying conditions, sometimes you do need to see your doctor. So, that's when I would say call your physician. And if this is just a routine check, maybe it's a dental cleaning, you know, those are being canceled if the doctor doesn't think they're necessary," Slade said.
It's up to a doctor to make that call.
"They may say, 'Hey, we have great protection right now. We feel good about this. Come on in' or 'Hey, that can wait a few months let's reschedule you.' And I think that the communication aspect of this is the best," Slade said.
If you have questions about COVID-19, keep sending them to 13WMAZ.
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