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Can you get infected with Omicron if you previously had COVID? All signs point to yes - The Boston Globe
Jan 12, 2022 1 min, 42 secs

The overall risk related to Omicron “remains very high,” the World Health Organization documented in its latest report on the variant, noting that there is “mounting evidence that immune evasion contributes to the rapid spread.”.

“Increased risk of reinfection has been reported in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Israel, all suggesting immune evasion against Omicron,” according to WHO.

Available evidence demonstrates that fully vaccinated individuals and those previously infected with COVID-19 “have a low risk of subsequent infection for at least six months,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A report from the Imperial College London COVID-19 response team that was released in mid-December found that the risk of reinfection with Omicron is approximately 5.4 times greater than that of Delta.

“This level of immune evasion means that Omicron poses a major, imminent threat to public health,” Neil Ferguson, a professor at the school, said in a news release.

Other studies published by researchers in both Scotland and South Africa have also demonstrated an elevated risk of reinfection with Omicron.

“You can get reinfected after having COVID-19, although it is less common in the first 90 days after infection,” Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, said in a question and answer about the variant.

“However, if you’ve had COVID-19 and are then vaccinated, this decreases your chance of reinfection by about half.”.

Data so far suggest that Omicron is four times as infectious as Delta — a variant that was shown to be twice as infectious as the original strain of COVID-19, said Edward Walsh, a professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in a question and answer session about the variant.

The CDC said it expects that “anyone with Omicron infection can spread the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or don’t have symptoms.” Despite this, vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself and reduce further spread

Gregory Poland, head of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, said in a question and answer about the variant

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