Almost 18 months following the first vaccine administration, several confusions and misunderstandings about safety, efficacy and who needs and who doesn’t need COVID-19 vaccines, etc., are still lingering around.
Tearing through the misconception that once you are infected with COVID, you don’t need to get vaccinated, studies from Brazil, Sweden, and UK show that even people who have had COVID-19 get long-lasting benefits from being fully vaccinated. Studies found that ‘Hybrid’ immunity conferred by COVID vaccine plus infection is long-lasting, providing effective protection against symptomatic disease for at least six to eight months after vaccination.
Although there are some doubts on the relevance of studies as the data were collected between February 2020 and November 2021 before the Omicron variant emerged, people previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and then receiving one dose of COVID-19 vaccine avoided up to 45% of the COVID-19 cases, increasing it to 65% of expected infections and more than 80% of expected cases of severe COVID-19 among fully vaccinated.
Although the advent of Omicron mandates a careful interpretation, since vaccination following infection, or infection following vaccination, results in particularly robust antibody responses, there is no harm but all the benefits in getting fully vaccinated.
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