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Monday, Apr. 4, 2022

Are flu and COVID-19 identical illnesses so vaccine recommendations are the same?

Dana Ford, Lead Stories

no

During an interview in 2004, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that a woman who recently had the flu did not need the flu vaccine "because the best vaccination is to get infected yourself." 

Some commenters on this video suggest his advice should apply equally to COVID-19 patients, but that's not accurate. Health experts continue to recommend that people get the COVID vaccine, even if they have already had COVID and recovered.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who had COVID and do not get vaccinated are more likely to get COVID again than those who got vaccinated after their recovery.

Additionally, people who were infected with earlier versions of COVID and who have not been vaccinated may be more vulnerable to new variants of the virus, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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