“If somebody just recently had Omicron after they already got boosted, maybe a little bit more cavalier about wearing a mask and social distancing,” Virk says.īut you shouldn’t ignore COVID-19 completely. That makes activities like indoor dining and visiting loved ones safer, if not 100% risk-free. “But we think you will be protected for at least three to six months after your infection.”ĭuring this window of time, when your immunity is strongest and you’re unlikely to get sick, you can also be fairly confident that you aren’t spreading the virus to anyone else. “We don’t know” exactly how long protection lasts, Virk says. Abinash Virk, an infectious disease physician at the Mayo Clinic.īased on what researchers know about how the immune system responds to this coronavirus and others, Virk says a fully vaccinated, boosted person who recovers from COVID-19 can feel pretty safe for the months following their breakthrough infection. ![]() Immunity gained from vaccines wanes over time, too, but early evidence suggests booster shots provide longer-lasting protection than initial shots, says Dr. ![]() One December 2021 study suggested reinfection could occur anywhere from three months to multiple years after a COVID-19 illness, with variations from person to person depending on age, health status and many other factors. Infection-derived immunity also wanes over time, so you can’t count on it forever. Some people generate many antibodies after an infection while others are left with few, and the average person won’t know how many they have. Post-infection immunity is also less predictable than vaccine-derived protection, Presti says. So why get vaccinated at all, if infection-derived immunity provides strong protection? For one thing, vaccination is a much safer way to gain immunity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that case rates during the Delta wave-which was before Omicron and widespread boosters-were lower among people who were previously diagnosed with COVID-19 than people who were just vaccinated. Other research has found that people who recover from Omicron infections gain immunity against both the Omicron and Delta variants. One small study of fully vaccinated health care workers who had breakthrough infections before the Omicron surge found that they experienced “substantial” jumps in antibodies after their illnesses, even though most were mild. So if you had a breakthrough infection, you probably walked away from the (hopefully mild) experience with an even stronger and more robust immune profile than you had before you got sick. The body mounts a wider-ranging immune response when it encounters the actual virus as opposed to a vaccine, Presti says. The infection sparks an immune response that imparts an extra layer of safety. You should never try to catch COVID-19, but there is a silver lining to getting it. ![]() Among boosted adults who experience them, cases tend to be mild. confirms that fully vaccinated and boosted people remain significantly less likely to get infected than unvaccinated people. More recent data gathered during the Omicron surge in the U.K. was 10 times less likely to test positive for COVID-19-and 20 times less likely to die from it-compared to an unvaccinated adult. ![]() According to the latest federal analysis, which included data from fall 2021, a fully vaccinated and boosted person in the U.S.
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