RELATED: If You Got Pfizer, You May Not Have Antibodies Against Delta After This Long. The study, published on Aug. 17 in the journal Epidemiology & Infection, highlighted the importance of Pfizer recipients not missing their second vaccine dose, even if they got infected with the virus after the first shot. The researchers for this study tracked 541 health care workers from Ziv Medical Center in northern Israel by regularly taking blood samples to measure their antibody levels after getting their doses of the Pfizer vaccine. According to the study, those who got infected with COVID after their first dose did not have higher antibody levels than fully vaccinated people who had never gotten infected. In fact, the researchers said that those who got infected after the first dose and then never got their second shot had similar antibody levels to those who also only received one dose but were never even infected. The antibody levels of those infected post-dose one at both 21 and 50 days after vaccination were similar to those who never got COVID and significantly lower than those who got infected prior to vaccination. “Our study suggests that two doses of vaccine are needed in those who were infected shortly after the first dose,” Michael Edelstein, MPH, an epidemiologist and professor with Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, said in a statement. “Although it was conducted on a small cohort, our data suggest that a second dose provides optimal protection to those patients infected between doses.” RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb The researchers behind this study also used the same set of health care workers for a February study published in the journal Eurosurveillance that indicated that people infected with COVID before vaccination reacted very strongly to just a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine. But that doesn’t mean people who were naturally infected shouldn’t get a full vaccine regimen. A study published Oct. 1 in The Lancet Microbe found that protection from natural infection is very short-lived among those who are not fully vaccinated. “Reinfection can reasonably happen in three months or less,” the study’s lead author Jeffrey Townsend, PhD, the Elihu Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health, said in a statement. “Therefore, those who have been naturally infected should get vaccinated. Previous infection alone can offer very little long-term protection against subsequent infections.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also still recommends that everyone get both doses if receiving an mRNA vaccine like Pfizer or Moderna, even if they catch COVID after their first shot. If you’ve gotten infected with the virus after your first dose, the agency says your second shot should be deferred until you have recovered and meet the criteria to discontinue isolation. “While there is no recommended minimum interval between infection and vaccination, current evidence suggests that the risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection is low in the period after initial infection, but may increase with time due to waning immunity,” the agency says. “A primary vaccination series decreases the risk of future infections in people with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.” RELATED: Dr. Fauci Says Doing This Could “Defeat the Purpose” of Your Booster.
