TAMPA, Fla. — Although you will get some antibodies if you’ve had COVID-19, the CDC recommends you should still get vaccinated even if you had the virus.
“People who’ve had COVID will mount antibody response but that antibody response we’ve learned is quite variable. So some people will mount a very high antibody response who’ve had COVID, some people mount a very low antibody response who’ve had COVID,” said Dr. Wilson, Associate Medical Director for the Emergency Room at Tampa General Hospital.
Experts say typically once people get better from COVID-19, their antibodies may not stick around for too long.
Wilson says, with vaccines, people have a much higher antibody response that seems to last for a longer period of time, researchers just don’t know how long yet.
“What we do know is that people who’ve had their full series of vaccinations are reaching antibody levels that are sometimes three to five times as high as people who’ve had the COVID virus before,” said Wilson.
If you have recently contracted the virus, the CDC recommends you wait about 10 days before getting vaccinated.
“If you’ve had the COVID virus and want to get vaccinated but received those monoclonal antibody infusions as treatment, then you would wait 90 days because you’ve got some passive antibodies on board,” said Wilson.