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COVID Reinfection Rates are Rare, but New Yorkers who have had COVID Should Get Vaccinated to Protect from Strains

COVID Reinfection Rates are Rare, but New Yorkers who have had COVID Should Get Vaccinated to Protect from Strains

 New Yorkers who have previously been infected with COVID-19 do not necessarily need to worry about the virus’s variants that have been found in New York City.

   “Reinfection remains a rare occurrence, meaning that people who have had COVID-19 do have a good protection against subsequent infection,” said Dave A. Chokshi, MD, the city’s commissioner of health. “However, it can occur, and we continue to analyze it, particularly in the context of the new variants.”

     When asked whether New Yorkers who have had COVID-19 should get vaccinated as soon as they can, Dr. Chokshi, who recently both had COVID-19 and got vaccinated, gave a resounding, “Yes.”

    “You should get vaccinated, provided that you have recovered from COVID-19, you're out of your isolation period, and you no longer have symptoms,” said Dr. Chokshi. “[Although you have antibodies,] the vaccine confers additional [and more much extended] immunity, beyond what you get from infection.”

   Although some New Yorkers worry that COVID’s mutated variants might be resistant to the vaccine, New York’s top doctors sound confident in the vaccines’ abilities to stop the spread of the virus’s mutations. 

   This morning, Mitch Katz, MD, the CEO of New York’s Health + Hospitals, said, “I am glad that the vaccines are so effective and preventing infection, even when there are variants.”

  The New York COVID variant does appear to be "more infectious than other strains," acknowledged Dr, Chokshi, but the degree to which the virus has increased virulence, reinfection rates, or decreases vaccine efficacy remains to be seen.  

   Although some doctors fear that some COVID strains might be less responsive to vaccines, said Jay Varma, MD, Mayor Bill De Blasio’s senior adviser for public health pointed out, no data has yet revealed that to be the case.

   “We have been analyzing the data continuously, Dr. Varma said. “We have been looking very aggressively and actively,"

 Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.


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