COVID Vaccination after recovery

[Eberlein]

Hello Austin,

What is your stance on vaccination of someone who has recovered from COVID? My father (age 73) was infected 3 month ago. His doctor recommends him getting one dose of Pfizer vaccine. Does it make any sense?

Thanks.

[Austin_Baraki]

I don’t have particularly strong opinions on it yet, although it is being recommended commonly. The reasoning is that the vaccines have been shown to produce a more robust and consistent immune response compared with natural infection. This happens for a variety of reasons including variation in the amount of virus someone was initially exposed to, the severity of their illness, and a number of viral mechanisms to suppress/evade the immune system when it infects someone. For example, someone who had an asymptomatic or a relatively mild infection would probably generate a far more robust protective response after subsequent vaccination.

[Eberlein]

@Austin_Baraki

I don’t have particularly strong opinions on it yet, although it is being recommended commonly. The reasoning is that the vaccines have been shown to produce a more robust and consistent immune response compared with natural infection. This happens for a variety of reasons including variation in the amount of virus someone was initially exposed to, the severity of their illness, and a number of viral mechanisms to suppress/evade the immune system when it infects someone. For example, someone who had an asymptomatic or a relatively mild infection would probably generate a far more robust protective response after subsequent vaccination.

Thanks for the reply! I don’t know if this info is useful, but he got a serology lab test a few days ago, and the result was IgG 115 (not sure about the units, but the test says that anything above 15 means that you had COVID19 in the past). His symptoms while he was sick were mild.