As world leaders in vaccine development and manufacture I am sure GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi understand the science at least as well. They also have extensive experience of doing this so will know far more about the real world problems that may be encountered even when a candidate shows promise. I am happy to defer to their judgement. If a small start-up or academic team come up with an effective vaccine much sooner it will be a bonus.

Coronavirus Survivors Hope for Immunity — The Reality Is More Complicated

But for now, that’s all it is: a hope. That’s because immunity is a particularly complicated question when it comes to coronaviruses, a class of viruses that includes SARS and MERS as well as seasonal coronaviruses that cause illnesses such as the common cold. They are named for the crown-like spiked proteins that allow them to attach to their cellular hosts.

“There is no proof at this point that the development of an antibody response will be protective,” said David Walt, a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “There is no evidence yet that people can’t be reinfected with the virus.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-14/do-coronavirus-survivors-have-immunity-from-reinfection-maybe

Very much agree, Justin.

To reiterate:

.....what the "natural history" of this pathogen will be once it reaches an equilibrium remains to be seen. We do not yet know the long term reliability of any immunity resulting from having CO-19. Nor do we know where the virus will be able to "hide out" in the human population or perhaps some reservoir host. We will be ill advised to let up on the present strategies for  reducing transmission before we have something effective in place to protect us, a vaccine or other medical treatment. That will take time and the prospect of a sequence of CO-19 peaks if we relax our present efforts is deeply worrying."

Roger

Equally well, there's no evidence that you can be reinfected, at least in the timescales since we've known about the virus.

All I can say is the virus would have to be fundementally different to every other type of coronavirus we know about if it weren't possible to become immune to it (at least for a while).

We are immune to the common cold for one to two months.

 Shame they shut this place up the road from me . Salisbury Common Cold Unit  They were doing a lot of research and you could go and get paid to catch a cold.

NEW: Tue 14 April update of coronavirus trajectories

Daily deaths:
• US & UK still trending up, though peak could be in sight
• Successes in dark blue: Australia, Norway, Austria locked down early => gentle slopes
• Japan also promising

Live charts: https://t.co/JxVd2cG7KI pic.twitter.com/E427iPvOMt

— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) April 14, 2020

Most colds are caused by Rhinoviruses not Coronaviruses. It's normal for a healthy adult to have two or three colds a year.

I may be incorrect in this, but is it not the case that there is no one "common cold" virus - there are many? Hence, we become immune for a good period of time to the particular strain of the common cold that we catch i.e. we will not suffer from that strain for at least a couple of years. However, we can catch one of the many other common cold viruses a month or two later. 

Most colds are caused by rhinoviruses, though, and you will be immune only to that strain which you caught.

As for cold coronaviruses, I can't find (with a quick search) how long immunity lasts. For SARS and MERS, though, it's between 18 months and 2 years.

Back in 2017 I went down with the common cold on no fewer than three occasions; January, March and at the end of October/start of November.

As it happens, I haven't had it once since late 2017.

This also highlights the somewhat random nature of viruses and their spread. You may have had immunity or you may have had luck.

Basically that is saying whatever we do other than the 2 options given means we are royally screwed.

Agree! But I seem to get attacked and suspended when I say this! 

I also agree with Darren's early morning post. We have to live with this for years and accept a certain number of weekly deaths until it runs through the whole population eventually. That will happen before a vaccine is ready for mass distribution

And the vaccine may not be that effective and may need to be changed every year like the flu vaccine

If often get a cold when I am tired, stressed or have had little sleep for a few days.

Is this because  my immune system is weak and vulnerable to a new virus, or a "dormant" virus in my body that reactivates?

I thought this was debunked by NickR?

Oversensitivity of testing?

It’s a good question and I would say the majority of the time it is the former. I don’t think that any cold viruses reactivate as such rather than your immunity to a specific virus fades over time (so reinfection rather than reactivation) and in addition you get viruses that your immune system has not encountered before.

Edit: As for Covid-19 reinfection, I think the body of evidence (and length of time) is too small to come to any valid conclusion. We will no doubt find out in the coming months and years.

I strongly believe that the human population will always be regulated naturally as Malthus said. Either by war, famine or disease

Or the planet will cull us with climate change!

Just made me think when most get a cold, one cold they receive is not like the next and the symptons often differ i.e. more of a sore throat, headache, phlegm. Some of these can be very mild but hit you with a chest infection later on as well. Whether the differences are the strains, your make up, or there are other factors at work.

Yesterday there was a local weirdo with an old fashioned cine camera filming passers by on the street, asking if they were making "essential journeys" and filming them like a vox pop fake journalist. Very intimidating. He came up to me and I told him I was going to Tesco and he said OK, "stay safe, watch your back"

I nodded and quickly moved on from the nutter. But others would have reacted very differently, especially the local yobbos

I imagine by the end of the day his camera would have been smashed to pieces!

Thanks

False positives is believed to be a possible cause but at the moment it is not certain. Until confidence levels are higher we can't rely on "herd immunity" as our way out. 

It would seem that like most publicly funded 'professional' organisations,  the WHO will parrot whatever the dominant political narrative is at any one particular time:

Gaming bad - WHO last year:

https://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/

Gaming now good - WHO this year:

https://globalnews.ca/news/6775552/world-health-organization-video-games-coronavirus-winnipeg/

There is evidence that some cold viruses can "hit and hide".

Researchers Discover Cold Virus Can 'Hit And Hide'

An international team of researchers has discovered that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common cold virus causing bronchiolitis in children, can act as a 'hit and hide' virus.

Professor Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London and St Mary's Hospital, and one of the papers authors, comments: "These studies show that RSV is a 'hit and hide' virus, rather like HIV, herpes or some hepatitis viruses. The symptoms seem to go away but the virus is just hiding, waiting for a chance to re-emerge and begin infecting other people."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/04/040426055429.htm

Plans for the Welfare State were laid by Beveridge and Butler re-designed the Education System during the war, and presumably Churchill authorised these efforts. So there is precedent for forward planning even at a time of crisis.