According to a new study, people who have natural immunity from the prior infection will derive the best protection from Covid after taking the vaccines.
Prior Infected And Vaccinated People Are Best Protected From Covid
However, taking the vaccines is always a better way to prevent Covid in the first place. When the level of protection as compared with unvaccinated people, it was found that they had less protection.
Many people who were infected in the first wave did not take the vaccines as they felt that they had sufficient protection from prior infection. While it is true that recovering from Covid infection gives some protection from future infections, it is still not a good idea to depend on that natural immunity. Such people will benefit more by taking vaccines as the protection is increased with vaccination.
However, it is true that the body derives some immunity naturally after recovering from infection. The problem with any sort of protection is that they do not last forever. You should never think that you have lifetime protection against Covid after recovering from infection.
This is the same situation even after vaccination, as the protection offered by vaccines also reduces with time. It is important to understand that depending on the natural immunity derived from prior infection is not a good thing to do in the long run.
Health experts also say that many other variables like co-morbid conditions and social exposure can trigger infections in the future. It is already evident that Omicron affects people who have taken both doses of vaccines. Similarly, many patients suffered from Covid infection in both the first and second waves of the pandemic. This clearly shows that any protection does not last long and it often decreases with time.
For this reason, the CDC has also recommended booster shots for high-risk people. The booster dose was given to healthcare workers and elders with co-morbid conditions in order to protect them from the ongoing third wave of the pandemic.
In recent studies, it was observed that booster shots helped to prevent Omicron to a large extent. Even though Omicron was able to invade vaccine protection, it was not able to cause serious outcomes in vaccinated people.
Yet another important point to focus on is the mutation of the coronavirus that is happening at a fast pace. The Omicron variant, which was first detected in November 2021, has already spread to hundreds of countries worldwide.
In the US, more than 95% of the new Covid cases detected in the last few weeks are due to the Omicron variant. This is an alarming situation as new variants can come even in the future and invade the existing protection.
For this reason, people should never assume that they are safe after recovering from an infection. If the virus mutates enough to invade protection, it can re-infect people within a few months after the first infection.
The vaccination rate in the US is still below the expected level as nearly 30% of the people have not received even a single dose of vaccine. Many people still do not believe in vaccines. There is a lot of vaccine hesitancy among the public that needs to be removed at the earliest in order to avoid the spread of Omicron.
As of now, the hospitalization rate is at an all-time high in the US, even after having decent vaccine protection. This goes on to show that we are never completely protected from Covid even after taking vaccines. It is important to follow social distancing norms and wear masks to avoid infection in the long run.
