COVID 2nd BOOSTER
The COVID 2nd booster shot is now available for those persons 50 and over, and especially for those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.
This 4th shot (2nd booster) must be an mRNA shot from Pfizer or Moderna and should be taken approximately 4 months after the last dose. The CDC suggests this is especially important for people 65 and older, who are at a higher risk from severe disease.
But many continue to question the efficacy of vaccines and boosters. Do we really know if this 4th shot is effective and or even necessary? And what about the protection from natural immunity if an individual has had COVID-19 and recovered?
Below are some facts about natural immunity, booster shots, and vaccines:
NATURAL IMMUNITY-
DOES IT PROTECT FROM REINFECTION?
Once a person has had COVID-19 and recovered, does the resulting natural immunity protect that person from reinfection?
The answer to that question appears to be yes, but only up to a point. As is the case with certain vaccinations, natural immunity wanes over time, and added to this, new variants compromise some of the protection afforded by an individual’s immune system, sometimes resulting in reinfection.
Vaccinations against diseases that do not mutate and produce variants can afford lasting immunity. This is the case with diseases such as polio and measles. This is definitely not the case with COVID-19.
Early evidence showed that over the first year of the pandemic, reinfections were rare. However, when new variants started to circulate, it was unknown how well natural immunity would hold up against new strains of the virus.
These new variants have been shown to be increasingly different from the original virus. Antibodies already in the bloodstream from the original virus appear to be less likely to be able to stick to the new variants to be able to help the body’s immune system fight off infection.
Studies done thus far have found that the protection offered by natural immunity against infection from the Alpha and Delta variants was in the 90th percentile. Protection dropped to the 50th percentile with the Omicron variant.
Therefore, the data we have been able to obtain so far appears to show that natural immunity protection drops significantly as the COVID-19 virus continues to mutate.
SHOULD A PERSON WHO HAS HAD COVID-19 GET VACCINATED
AFTER RECOVERY?
To answer this question, it must be understood that infection and vaccination are not either/or propositions!
US data found that even before the emergence of the Omicron variant, individuals who had recovered from COVID-19 but remained unvaccinated had more than twice the odds of being reinfected compared to someone who was fully vaccinated.
Therefore, data suggests that an individual with a previous COVID-19 infection can and should definitely get vaccinated.
However, those who recover from COVID-19 should wait 3 months before getting vaccinated because during that time it is likely their bodies are still producing high levels of antibodies and the vaccine will probably not provide much of an immune boost.
Although studies involving COVID-19 immunity, vaccines, boosters, etc. are being done in different countries, at different points in time with circulating variants, different vaccine protocols, and using different methodologies, all of these studies are consistent in indicating that there is definitely an added benefit to getting vaccinated even if an individual has previously had COVID-19.
Vaccines provide a critical immune boost to individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 and this is what they were designed to do.
IS IT TRUE THAT THE MORE BOOSTERS A PERSON RECEIVES, THE LESS BENEFICIAL, or EVEN HARMFUL, THEY COULD BE ON THE IMMUNE SYSTEM?
Please continue reading here for the answer to the above question as well as the answer to the question of whether or not the COVID 2nd booster shot is effective or necessary.
