However, adults aged 65 and over who were previously infected had only about 47.1% protection against repeated infection, compared with a protection rate of 80.5% among younger people, he said. The study.
The difference can probably be explained by natural changes that weaken your immune system as you age, the study authors said.
“We know that as our immune system grows stronger,” says C. Buddy Creech, MD, an infectious disease specialist and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program in Nashville, Tennessee. “This is why we offer older adults stimulates shingles and the high-dose flu vaccine or the flu vaccine that has a special immune stimulant called adjuvant. “
Natural immunity is not enough
The study highlights the importance of face masks, social distancing and COVID-19 vaccine administration, even for those who have already had coronavirus, especially if they are older. “Natural protection, especially among the elderly, cannot be invoked,” the study’s authors wrote.
Coronavirus vaccines that have been licensed in the United States offer significantly better protection than natural immunity, says Creech. “If you take 100 people who have all had COVID, their immune response could be all over the map,” he says. They often correlate with a variety of factors, including the severity of their initial disease. But when you look at the immune response [to the vaccines], are much stronger and more consistent. ”
In good news, the study found that “there is no evidence” that a person’s immunity decreases over a six-month period of positive testing for the virus.