Sorry, I obviously didn't word my post very well - I wasn't trying to derail the thread and start a discussion on herpes.
What I was getting at was that with viruses we're familiar with we know what to expect, so we know that if somebody is infected with herpes which then clears up and they later have another attack even years later, it's because the original infection has been lying low in their system and not because they've been 'cured' and then caught it again.
With a new pathogen everything has to be learned so it takes time, which means nobody can say whether apparent reinfections are in fact just a resurgence of the original, nor how accurate testing is and so on, because while there are likely to be similarities with existing knowledge it hasn't been seen before.
To try and drag it kicking and screaming back on topic, this also means that nobody will know if and when anybody else is contagious (including themselves) until it's been properly researched, so anybody who believes they would be at serious risk would probably be sensible to avoid working until there's more information.