CDC report says people who had one bout of COVID-19 get a dramatic boost in virus-fighting immune cells when they’re vaccinated, and broader protection against new mutants
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adjusts her face mask.Even people who have recovered from COVID-19 are urged to get vaccinated, especially as the extra-contagious delta variant surges – and a new study shows survivors who ignored that advice were more than twice as likely to get reinfected.
Scientists say infection does generally leave survivors protected against a serious reinfection at least with a similar version of the virus, but blood tests have signalled that protection drops against worrisome variants.Researchers studied Kentucky residents with a lab-confirmed coronavirus infection in 2020, the vast majority of them between October and December. They compared 246 people who got reinfected in May or June of this year with 492 similar survivors who stayed healthy.
There’s little information yet on reinfections with the newer delta variant. But U.S. health officials point to early data from Britain that the reinfection risk appears greater with delta than with the once-common alpha variant, once people are six months past their prior infection.“There’s no doubt” that vaccinating a COVID-19 survivor enhances both the amount and breadth of immunity “so that you cover not only the original but the variants,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.
One warning for anyone thinking of skipping vaccination if they had a prior infection: The amount of natural immunity can vary from person to person, possibly depending on how sick they were to begin with. The Rush University study found four of 29 previously infected people had no detectable antibodies before they were vaccinated – and the vaccines worked for them just like they work for people who never had COVID-19.
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