Post-Vaccination COVID-19 Exposure Benefits

Getting Covid-19 after being fully vaccinated can have its perks!

Anika H. Ahmed, MD

It is amazing to study the immune system of the human body and see how it reacts to a foreign antigen, in the form of an allergen, a viral or bacterial infection. Any time an infection occurs, the immune system tries to defend the body by developing antibodies against the attacking allergen, virus or bacteria and tries to control the infection. This is why many people are seen with totally different kind and severity of symptoms, each individual’s immune system reacting uniquely to the Coronavirus.

A recent study of researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine in Portland, Oregon have concluded that those individuals who after being fully vaccinated for Covid-19, do get Coronavirus infection, have their immune system trigger a massive antibody response resulting in ‘super immunity’. This of course does not mean that fully vaccinated individuals should seek the Coronavirus to develop ‘hybrid immunity’, as scientists are still not sure how differently each immune system may react. In this recent study at Oregon, 26 fully vaccinated individuals that got Covid-19 after vaccination were compared with a vaccinated group of people that did get Covid-19, and there was seen a substantial increase in the number of antibodies in the 26 fully vaccinated individuals, with Covid-19. The increases in antibodies were phenomenal, up to a 1,000% increase and sometimes up to 2,000%.  This indicates that the full dose of vaccine when taken by individuals provides a basic foundational immunity that prepares the body to deal with the Coronavirus, in a manner that leads to extremely mild symptoms and in some cases no symptoms at all, but at the same time also establishes a ‘Super Immunity’ against any further Coronavirus infections. These antibodies appear to be effective against the various variants of the Coronavirus including the delta variant. The highly contagious Omicron variant appearing in the third week of November this year, detected in South Africa and now spreading rapidly across the globe, is able to infect even the fully vaccinated individuals but with seemingly mild symptoms or in some cases even asymptomatic Covid-19 patients!