New study: can you catch COVID again if you are not vaccinated?

Unvaccinated people are more likely to be re-infected with the coronavirus, according to a group of researchers.

A research team from the Yale School of Public Health and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte found that protection against natural infections is limited.

• “Reinfection can reasonably occur in three months or less,” said Jeffrey Townsend, Professor Elihu of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health, in A declaration. “Therefore, those who have been naturally infected should get vaccinated. A previous infection alone may offer very little long-term protection against later infections. “
• “We tend to think of immunity as being immune or not immune. Our study warns that we should instead focus more on the risk of re-infection over time, ”said Alex Dornburg, an assistant professor of bioinformatics and genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, according to a Press release.

The results were published in The Lancet Microbe, a medical journal.

To find this, researchers observed patterns of reinfection with coronaviruses close to COVID-19, which were considered “common colds” and other viruses, according to a Press release.

• The team found that re-infections can occur soon after recovery.
• And they will become more frequent as the natural immunity to the virus weakens.

This is especially true for people infected at the start of the pandemic. The variants will make it more difficult for a person infected early on to stay safe from the virus.

• “As new variants appear, the previous immune responses become less effective in fighting the virus”, said Dornburg. “Those who were naturally infected at the start of the pandemic are increasingly likely to be re-infected in the near future. “

Scientists have been research how people with natural immunity respond to COVID-19 infections. Specifically, questions have arisen as to whether a natural infection can protect you as well, if not better, than vaccines, especially when the vaccine’s effectiveness wanes.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it is still not clear whether natural immunity can stop the COVID-19 infection as well as the vaccine, per The Washington Examiner.

• “I don’t have a really firm answer for you on this. This is something we are going to have to discuss regarding the sustainability of the response ”, said Fauci.

Fauci said, in fact, that it is possible that a naturally infected person is not as protected as a person who has been vaccinated, as I wrote for the Deseret News.