Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021
Is there no reason to get the COVID-19 vaccine if you have already been infected?
Being infected with COVID-19 does confer some natural immunity. However, those who have had COVID-19 can still be reinfected. Receiving a vaccine reduces infection risk, including in individuals previously infected.
According to a Centers for Disease Control study published in August, unvaccinated individuals with a COVID-19 history "are twice as likely to get infected again" compared to those "fully vaccinated after initially contracting the virus."
A Science Magazine study published in October corroborates this, having found that COVID-19 vaccinations increased antibody levels in those with preexisting immunity, affording an "immune memory" at least six months after vaccination.
Warner Greene, a virologist at the Gladstones Institute, says individuals vaccinated post-infection have "hyper-immunity, which is like super-immunity" superior to natural immunity alone.
These findings suggest COVID-19 survivors have a reason to get vaccinated if they wish to reduce their risk of reinfection.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Centers for Disease Control New CDC Study: Vaccination Offers Higher Protection than Previous COVID-19 Infection
- Science mRNA vaccines induce durable immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern
- USA Today Natural immunity is good. Getting vaccinated after being sick with COVID-19 is better.
- Centers for Disease Control Immunity Types
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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