Can I get COVID again? Dr. Mallika Marshall answers your questions
BOSTON - Dr. Mallika Marshall is answering your coronavirus vaccine-related medical questions. If you have a question, email her or message her on Facebook or Twitter.
Dr. Mallika is offering her best advice, but as always, consult your personal doctor before making any decisions about your personal health.
Sean asks, "I usually do a home test before seeing my 75-year-old parents, but should I even bother? I know that at-home tests can have trouble detecting symptomatic cases of COVID, so can we trust them at all to detect asymptomatic cases?"
It takes some time for the virus to replicate and build up quantities large enough for a rapid at-home test to detect it. But even if you have asymptomatic COVID, a rapid test should eventually turn positive. It may take a number of days, just like in people who have symptoms. And even if you have COVID, if you test negative on a rapid home antigen test, your viral load probably isn't great enough to be highly contagious. So if you test negative on the day that you're going to see your elderly parents, it's unlikely you'll pass on the virus to them. However, if your loved one is very high risk, given the high case counts now, you may still want to wear a mask around them or get a more accurate PCR test before visiting.
Rich writes, "Many have said that once I've contracted COVID, I cannot get it again. I do not believe this. Who is correct, me or those in the 'many have said' camp?"
You are correct. You're unlikely to contract COVID again with a few months of infection, but after that, your immunity will likely drop and you could be vulnerable to getting it again, especially with another variant. We're seeing people now with COVID who have had COVID once or even twice before.
Sandra writes, "I've noticed a lot of people who have been boosted or double-boosted getting COVID, and I haven't heard of anybody now who hasn't been vaccinated getting COVID. It's just really perplexing."
People who are unvaccinated are still the most vulnerable to infection and to hospitalization from COVID. Fortunately, in our area, most adults have been vaccinated But with the newest variants, even those of us who are vaccinated and boosted are at risk of infection because our immunity is not as powerful as it was with prior variants. That said, most people who are vaccinated and boosted who contract the Omicron variant are much more likely to have a very mild illness without serious complications compared to those who are not vaccinated.
