/Unvaccinated adults who previously had COVID-19 may face double the risk of reinfection compared to vaccinated adults: Study

Unvaccinated adults who previously had COVID-19 may face double the risk of reinfection compared to vaccinated adults: Study

Unvaccinated adults who have had COVID-19 possibly face double the risk of reinfection compared to vaccinated adults, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What are the details?

The new study, which assessed the likelihood of COVID-19 reinfection in unvaccinated adults, found that unvaccinated people who have had coronavirus may be more than twice as likely to get infected again when compared to those who received a vaccine.

According to the New York Times, the CDC study “examined the risk of reinfection during May and June” among hundreds of Kentucky residents who tested positive for the virus in 2020.

The study, according to a Saturday Fox News report, was carried out as part of the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“Those who did not get vaccinated this year faced a risk of reinfection that was 2.34 times higher than those who did not get their [coronavirus vaccines],” the Times’ Roni Caryn Rabin wrote. “The study suggests that for those who had overcome an infection, the addition of a vaccine offered better protection than the natural immunity generated by their original bout with the virus alone.”

Rabin added, “The study’s authors cautioned that much is still not known on how long natural immunity to the virus lasts and that genomic sequencing was not conducted to confirm that the reinfections were not simply flare-ups of the remains of the subjects’ initial infections.”

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that the data in the new study only reinforces the importance of vaccination against COVID-19 — even for those who had prior infections.

“If you have had COVID-19 before, please still get vaccinated,” Walensky said Friday. “Getting the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and others around you, especially as the more contagious Delta variant spreads around the country.”

In July, Walensky said that the dangerous Delta variant is “spreading with incredible efficiency and now represents more than 83% of the virus circulating in the United States.”

What else?

Fox News’ Saturday report also pointed out a recent CDC study that “pointed to the success of the vaccines in preventing COVID-19-related hospitalizations among the highest-risk age groups” and noted that both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were 96% effective in preventing hospitalizations among adults ages 65 to 74 years.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, according to the same report, is 85% effective in that age group.