Should one get COVID-19 vaccine after had COVID-19 pneumonia?

Should one get COVID-19 vaccine after had COVID-19 pneumonia?

Should one get COVID-19 vaccine after had COVID-19 pneumonia? Pfizer’s COVID-19 pneumonia vaccine has been vaccinated in the United States. On December 17, the US FDA will review Moderna’s vaccine, followed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca’s vaccines. Given that there are currently over 16 million confirmed cases in the United States, is it necessary for people who have recovered from new coronavirus pneumonia to be vaccinated?

John Whyte, chief medical officer of WebMD, a US healthcare website, pointed out that people who have been infected by the virus enjoy “immunity” for months to years, but don’t know how long. If the new coronavirus is similar to other coronaviruses, immunity may remain for several years.

A number of studies previously released, including a comprehensive study released in November, have shown that immunity against the virus can last for at least 6 months, and perhaps several years. If vaccines are used, the durability of immunity should be longer than that of recovered patients.

Whyte believes that given the current limited resources of vaccines, the survivors may be the last to be vaccinated. After all, their immunity is stronger than that of the uninfected.

The day before the large-scale launch of Pfizer vaccine in the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation that people who have recovered from the COVID-19 virus infection are recommended to receive the COVID-19 pneumonia vaccine. They have certain health risks, and they may also be infected again.

The CDC points out that after people recover from infection, they will have a certain degree of immunity, called natural immunity, whose strength varies from person to person. Some early evidence shows that natural immunity will not last for a long time, and we do not have data on the duration of immunity after vaccination. Scientists are exploring this information further.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunity and Respiratory Diseases of the CDC in the United States, analyzed that if people who have recovered from infection are vaccinated against new coronavirus pneumonia, there may be some side effects. In the previous clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine, some participants had been infected and had antibodies in their bodies, which may affect the judgment of the vaccine results, so they were excluded by scientists, and this part of the data evidence was lacking.

However, according to Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser of Operation Warp Speed, it is estimated that 10% of the volunteers in the Pfizer and Moderna trials may be infected, and the two companies have not done too much screening of those who have been infected.

Messonnier said that despite the large scale of clinical trials, it is different from promoting vaccines to the public. After the vaccine is approved, our research cannot be stopped, and we need to verify how effective it is after it is promoted to the public.

The answer of Dr. Fauci, a well-known American infectious disease expert, is straightforward: I must fight. We don’t know how long the immunity can last after being infected with the new coronavirus, and we don’t know whether this immunity is strong enough. So being infected with the virus is not a contraindication to vaccination.

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