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Breakthrough Infections Dramatically Enhance COVID Immunity
I don’t want anyone to get Covid after being vaccinated. If this were to happen, the immune response get an enormous boost.
I don’t want anyone to get Covid after being fully vaccinated, a so-called “breakthrough infection.” I wish they would never happen. The reality is, however, breakthrough infections do happen. And, it seems, they are happening more often this Fall.
This is not totally surprising. While it would be ideal for a vaccine to prevent infection — i.e., catching the virus at all — at the very least, a good vaccine will prevent you from getting very sick from the disease. On this latter front, the vaccines continue to hold up well.
Yet, if it were to happen — if someone were to get a breakthrough infection — research shows that this person ends up with very robust immunity.
Researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University studied 26 people who were fully vaccinated against SARS CoV-2 and subsequently got COVID and compared them with 26 people who were vaccinated but did not get COVID. They found the immunity after a breakthrough infection was substantial:
