Woman Who Says She Contracted COVID-19 Twice Warns to Take the Virus Seriously After Barely Surviving Second Bout

There’s still a lot that doctors don’t know about the novel coronavirus. At first, there was the hope that if you got COVID-19 you would become immune and unable to get it again. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that it works that way.

First, we learned about a 25-year-old man from Nevada who was the first confirmed case in the United States of someone having COVID-19 twice. The second time he got COVID-19 was even worse than the first time. Thankfully, he has since recovered.

Now, there’s another case of someone who has had COVID-19 twice. In this case, it’s a 46-year-old woman from Oklahoma. The first time Leslie Tanyan tested positive for COVID-19 was in June. She barely had any symptoms at the time and assumed that she was now immune.

Then, in August, Tanyan had extreme shortness of breath and told her husband that she needed to go to the hospital because she couldn’t breath.

When Tanyan got to the hospital, she wasn’t tested for COVID-19 right away because she had already had it in June; however, when they finally did the test, she tested positive. Tanyan said, “I thought I was immune. Did not think I’d get it again, and I did. I was really shocked. I told them I had it in June and thought we were supposed to have immunity.”

Tanyan ended up spending 3 and a half weeks on the hospital’s COVID floor and then, after 2 negative tests, she was moved to a long-term care facility to complete her recovery. She was there for a month.

Tanyan has only been home for a few days, but she wants to warn others about the seriousness of the virus and the fact that just because you’ve had it once does not mean that you are immune. She said, “This is serious and it’s taking a lot of lives. Those numbers have families.”

She added a special message to her community. “I want my Native American community to be careful. We hold our elders in high regard. Those are the ones we want to protect.”

Watch the video below to learn more about Tanyan’s experience with COVID-19.

Even if you have already tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered, it’s important to take precautions to prevent getting it again. Wearing a face mask, avoiding crowded locations and practicing social distancing are all things that the CDC recommends to keep yourself healthy and safe.