Understanding how the immune system works, and how variants of a virus come about, leads to the answer – yes. The same variant of COVID-19 can be contracted more than once, and different variants can be contracted as well.
One thing that still seems to confuse people is how much a vaccine or natural immunity protects you from getting an infection and re-infection. A health magazine has studied this question and provided the following information to help people understand both the likelihood of reinfection and seeing more variants of CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
First, understanding how the immune system works, and how variants of a virus come about, leads to the answer - yes. The same variant can be contracted more than once, and different variants can be contracted as well. Hypothetically, someone could actually get more than one variant at the same time. This according to the editorial department at Your Health Magazine in the Maryland and Northern Virginia area.
“People are still confused about what natural immunity is and what vaccinations accomplish. In both of these, the result is to help your immune system recognize an antigen, in this case the virus, and be prepared to fight it,” according to the magazine.
The article goes on to describe both topics and offers an interesting analogy everyone can relate to. “An analogy might be something like this: Someone throws something at you when you don’t expect it and it hits you in the face. The next time they throw something you are prepared and raise your hand to stop it. It still hits you, but only in the hand. You managed to stop it before it got to your face.
“When you catch a disease, like COVID-19, your immune system develops an awareness so when mother nature throws it at you again, you can raise your defenses and protect yourself.”
The same applies to a vaccine, but with a vaccine people are only exposed to non-functional pieces of the disease so it doesn’t affect them very much anyway. It sensitizes the body to beware of the disease, and when the body is exposed, the defenses go up, limiting the amount of damage.
In the case of a flu shot, people may actually feel a little sick one day, or maybe even a lot sick, but the symptoms dissipate more quickly and they never get that whole week of horrible flu symptoms. This also means that the likelihood of spreading it to someone else is considerably less - by a lot.
The CDC, NIH and White House Task Force did a terrible job of communicating these things to the public and changed their tune every other week so there is no wonder the confusion exists.
The publisher explained, “This is why we studied this and produced this information. Many people got the impression that being vaccinated or surviving the disease meant they couldn’t get the virus at all, which is untrue. Data on any virus or disease shows that people still get it, it is just a lot easier to get over it.
“And, it should be understood that getting it is a lot harder, and transmitting it is a lot less likely too, but you can still get it. People who have had it, or have been vaccinated, are a lot less likely to get it [again], and a lot less likely to spread it.”
In addition to the information studied by the magazine about re-infection, they also found a lot of information indicating people do not really understand the concept of variants. This is a bonus of the research.
“One thing everyone must understand and should know already is that viruses mutate and produce variants. Those variants must be addressed either through vaccines or treatments, and most likely both,” according to the research team.
They added the following information to help people understand the concept of variants.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has now produced another variant which is creating havoc worldwide. Omicron is the latest edition of the virus leading to shutdowns and re-evaluation of where we stand.
From the time of the H1N1 pandemic in 1918 the influenza virus has been producing variants each year, and that’s why we need to get a flu shot every year. This is nothing new but many people may not understand it. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS has so many variants that there is not likely an accurate count. There are actually several “groups” of HIV variants.
Virtually all animals and viruses mutate then recombine to form variations of themselves. Humans evolved in the same way in the process called natural selection. A virus, like CoV-2 replicates so fast and so many times it’s inevitable that it will mutate and replicate the mutations which then are dangerous variants of the original virus. In the case of CoV-2, there have been as many as 50 mutations identified in the RNA that forms the capsule and system by which the virus is injected into cells. Those mutations are of particular interest because that is where the vaccines are designed to attack the virus. The vaccines essentially make it much more difficult for the virus to enter your cells, which lessons its effect.
We are seeing a lot of breakthrough infections. But, we are also seeing those people infected are not getting as sick or dying, unless they have other health problems that weaken their immune systems.
CoV-2 is really following the natural course of any virus, spawning variants that have to be studied and combatted.
Quoting the publisher of the health magazine, “I’m here to tell you, COVID is not going away, probably ever, but the level at which we can fight it and protect ourselves from it advances every day. This is very important for people to understand, otherwise every time someone gets ill, we have to stop everything everywhere. That is not necessary if people are vaccinated or have natural immunity.”
At some point governments around the world will begin treating this virus similarly to the way they treat the flu and other viruses. There has to be a point where the world gets to where it is an “acceptable” danger. A better understanding of the problem will help people get to that point sooner than later.
