Why You Can Get The Vaccine Even If You'd Already Had Covid-19
The UK’s first Covid-19 vaccinations are due to start among the highest priority groups on Tuesday December 8. However most healthy people won’t be getting theirs until next year.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has so far been approved for use in individuals who are 16 years of age and older – this is because the safety and efficacy in children hasn’t yet been established. The vaccine will be administered in two separate doses – 21 days apart.
It’s not been spelt out whether those who’ve recovered from Covid-19 should take the vaccine, too. The logic goes that their immune systems will have already fought off the virus once – so they might not have to.
However a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson has confirmed to HuffPost UK that people who’ve recovered from Covid-19 will still be encouraged to have the new vaccine.
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Vaccine trials have so far focused on people who haven’t had Covid-19 before, so we don’t know how a person recovered from the virus might react to it.
But experts don’t appear to be worried. There is no evidence that a vaccine would be unsafe for people who’ve recovered from Covid-19, Dr Sarah Fortune, chair of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told NBC News, but she added more research is needed.
Professor Eleanor Riley, an expert in immunology and infectious Disease at the University of Edinburgh, explains that people who have recovered from Covid-19 have varying levels of antibodies, with varying levels of neutralising activity, so they “may be protected for varying lengths of time into the future”. Some people may be protected better than others after natural infection, she adds.
