Should you get the Covid-19 vaccine if you’ve already been infected with the virus? According to experts, yes.
Regardless of previous infection, scientists at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say people should plan on getting vaccinated whenever they can.
“It's a pretty straightforward question and yes, you need to get vaccinated,” said Dr Amesh Adalja, infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University.
And even though after someone recovers from the virus, their immune system offers them some amount of protection against the getting infected again, scientists still don't know exactly how long this immunity lasts or how strong it is, though recent research suggests the protection could last for several months.
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It's impossible to know how long a person might be immune, said Dr Prathit Kulkarni, an infectious disease expert at Baylor College of Medicine. “There's no way to calculate that,” Kulkarni added.
Meanwhile, vaccines, by contrast, are designed to bring about a more consistent and optimal immune response. And they should boost whatever pre-existing immunity a person might have from an infection, experts say.
“Since we're in this pandemic, and don't have a handle on it, the safer approach is to vaccinate,” Kulkarni said adding, “You don't lose anything and you stand to benefit.”
If you've been infected in the last three months, the CDC says it's fine to delay vaccination if you want to let others go first while supplies are limited. “All things being equal you would want the person with no protection to go first,” Adalja said.
