You Should Still Get Vaccinated Even If You ’ve Already Had COVID-19, Study Shows

In one of the first large studies exploring immunity from natural infection with COVID-19, researchers in Denmark found some surprising trends—including evidence that even those who previously contracted the disease should still get vaccinated. In the study, published March 17 in medical journal The Lancet, researchers took advantage of repeated coronavirus test results from about 4 million people in order to track how often those previously infected with SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—were reinfected. Since the test results were tied to people’s health records, the scientists could anonymize the data and compare those who tested positive during Denmark’s first COVID-19 wave last spring with those who tested positive during a second wave in the autumn. That revealed key findings about reinfection rates in the country. In the spring, 2% of the 530,000-plus people who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 were positive. Among them, 0.65% tested positive again later that year, compared to 3.3% of those who had tested negative during the first wave. That suggests infection with SARS-CoV-2 provides about 80% protection against reinfection. What’s more, there was no evidence that this immunity waned over the study’s six month follow-up period. But when the researchers broke down the data by age, they learned that this protection wasn’t uniform—protection was only 47% for people over 65 years old. “The result in the elderl...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news