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As immunity wanes for many vaccinated adults and omicron and its subvariants continue to circulate, it seems that just about everyone knows someone with a case of COVID-19.
The steady increase in COVID-19 infections is due to changing, highly contagious variants, explains Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. Dr. Poland says it’s still important to take the precaution of mask-wearing in public areas, even if you have been vaccinated and have received your boosters.
"I can’t say it enough. This is so hypercontagious that, regardless of having had three or four doses of vaccine or of having previous COVID-19, you still run an appreciable chance of getting COVID," explains Dr. Poland. "The risk in that case is not of death or hospitalization, but of the complications and long-haul symptoms of COVID-19. And that’s what we’re trying to prevent in people."
For parents, there is positive news this week, as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted unanimously to authorize emergency use of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5. For this age group, the Pfizer vaccine will be given in three doses while the Moderna vaccine will be given in two doses.
The FDA panel's recommendation now goes to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for approval before shots can be administered, possibly beginning as early as next week.
On the Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Poland shares the latest COVID-19 news, answers listener questions, and discusses another infectious disease outbreak: monkeypox.
To practice safe social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, this interview was conducted using video conferencing. The sound and video quality are representative of the technology used. For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in an area not designated for patient care, where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.
Research disclosures for Dr. Gregory Poland.
Connect with others talking about the pandemic and supporting one another in the COVID-19 support group.
Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date.
For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.
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If you don't make antibodies from these vaccines, what would be the purpose in doing them?
What about natural immunity with these current iterations? Early on I went through covid without much symptomatically, then got Moderna regiment about a year later and developed some ongoing symptoms. If there are potential new vaccines coming out why not wait, or if you had covid 6-9 mos. go, should you wait for a new vaccine given the benefits of natural immunity? Just think if Dr. Poland mentions masking he'd address all aspects that in fact are real. Is the chance for "long covid" the same, higher given the new variants. That is if you had very manageable symptoms and no long covid with omicron or delta variant how does that translate to the threat represented by new variants?
In the recent past, if you had Covid you had good protection against getting Covid. In this latest podcast, Poland said that with the extremely highly transmissible variants, you can get Covid even if you had all your shots, and even if you had Covid previously. In his last podcast he said they are seeing more reinfections than in the past; having Covid is not the protection that it once was.
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1 ReactionThanks. I was more thinking if getting infected with the new variants still affords immunity against the same variant; e,g, BA 4 or 5. Again it seems as if the key is the rapidness of mutation.
Sorry i cant give you a solid answer but i read a blog from an epidemiologist and she is writing about reinfections a lot.
Be very interested in that given the lesser severity of the newer variants if that will hold true for the long covid. I do not know of anyone who has suffered much from the newest variants, but people who continue to suffer from previous infections (e.g., 4mos - 2 yrs, ago) and now are dealing with long haul covid.