“Reports indicate that vaccination provides longer protection than natural infection.” “This virus can overcome a person’s host immunity and cause a second infection,” Dr. Think you don’t need to get vaccinated because you’ve already had COVID-19? Think again. But doctors do know that some people are at higher risk than others.Īdvertising Policy Reinfection in unvaccinated people “It’s important to note that we’re still learning a lot about reinfections and who’s at risk for those reinfections,” Dr. In the same vein, anyone can get COVID-19 again. Who’s at risk of COVID-19 reinfection?īy now, we know that anyone can get COVID-19 - the vaccinated and unvaccinated, those who have had it already and those who haven’t. “This variant’s infectiousness - including its ability to evade immune systems and prevent long-lasting immunity for those people who are infected with it - is one of the reasons why it’s been able to persist and come back,” he explains.

Esper says, it’s COVID-19’s contagiousness that makes it so, well, contagious.

The CDC reports that the delta variant is at least twice as contagious as previous variants, and in December, omicron became the dominant variant in the U.S. It’s even more contagious than delta.īut you may be surprised to learn that the coronavirus actually doesn’t mutate nearly as much as the flu, which changes nearly everything about its appearance from one year to the next. “You put all four of those things together, and it’s not too surprising that we’re seeing more and more people becoming infected for a second time,” Dr. “These variants are able to overcome some of the existing immunity people developed via vaccination or a previous infection,” Dr. New variants are extra-contagious: COVID-19 variants are more infectious than the first wave of coronavirus.We’ve stopped being as careful: Gone are the early days of mass vigilance around safety precautions such as masking, handwashing and social distancing - all the things that initially kept the virus at bay.This is one reason why it’s critical to receive your third dose. Vaccine immunity diminishes with time, too: For Americans who got vaccinated as early as winter 2020, immunity may be starting to wane, as well.“The immunity from those initial infections begins to wane over time.” “At this point, many of those infections happened months ago or more than a year ago,” Dr. surpassed 50 million cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. The pandemic has been happening for a while: In December 2021, the U.S.

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