COVID vaccinated people with past infection should be last to get booster shots: Experts

Those who have recovered from COVID-19 infection and have been fully vaccinated against the virus should be the last in line to be administered with the third coronavirus booster shots, experts have suggested. Meanwhile, the Americans, most vulnerable to contracting the virus and among the high-risk groups that could contract COVID-19 disease should be administered with an extra shot of the vaccine in order to boost immunity against COVID-19 and the highly contagious variant such as the Delta, the immunologists suggest. 

 After about five months, the immunity from the COVID-19 vaccines starts to wane, medics and healthcare experts have pointed out citing the real-world data, as they pressed for people to take an extra dose of the vaccine. “People who had been fully vaccinated and have previously caught the virus are likely to be the last group that really needs the booster because their immune system had had three exposures, two vaccine doses, and one infection, all of which trigger an immune response,” Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University, told The Wall Street Journal.   

Fully vaccinated 'just won the game'

Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Dr. Paul Offit, told the US paper that those who recovered from COVID-19 infection and were fully vaccinated "just won the game”, indicating that they may, in fact, have a robust immune system to fight the infection. "I wouldn't ask them to get a booster dose. I think they just got it," he said, referring to the immune system boost from an infection,” he stated. Another health expert, a professor in molecular immunology at London Metropolitan University similarly recommended that the vaccinated population, who has also previously recovered from COVID-19, may not need a booster at all due to the presence of the antibodies.

“You get spike-specific immunity,” McLean said, explaining that COVID-19 recovery generates the immune response against the virus’ spike protein. Although he warned people against throwing away caution and catching the disease, labelling it as “dangerous”. He also stated that the boosters are "generally safe” when administered several months after the second dose of the vaccination regime. A study by the National Institutes of Health also shows that those who took the Johnson & Johnson Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine as a first shot, generally had a stronger immune response when they received the second booster shot with either Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE or Moderna Inc.