When Michelle Dias came out of isolation after a few days of severe headaches and chills, taking Advil Cold and Sinus, and binge-watching TV, she couldn’t help but feel a little relieved.
“I got really worried and anxious even when I was going to a grocery store because I was going to buy it,” said the 35-year-old Mississauga resident, who tested positive for COVID on Christmas Eve and had a mild case. Even though she tried her best not to get infected, there is a part of her that is “happy she got it.”
If Omicron hit you over the holidays this year, like Dias, you may now be wondering, is there a possible silver lining to this misery? Are you now protected from getting it again?
There are still many unknowns about the variant that was only first detected in November. Experts say you should have some protection after an infection, but it will vary a lot and it’s not clear how long it will last.
They stress that that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get a third dose of the vaccine, as that’s what gives everyone the best chance against a serious outcome.
“People who get infected with Omicron or any other variant will, in most cases, have some immunity that results from that,” said Angela Rasmussen, a research scientist and adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan. Something that has been confusing to many is “if both vaccines and infection induce immunity, then why do you need to get vaccinated after you get infected?”
The reason, he said, is that vaccines produce an immune response that is more “reliable” in terms of how many antibodies are produced to fight the virus and how long they last. But with the infection, it is very different from person to person.
“You can assume that anyone who’s already vaccinated and boosted and then gets Omicron is going to get some kind of immune boost from that advanced infection, but one thing we really don’t know is if that would be significant, giving significantly more protection in the top of your existing vaccination.” This is something scientists are working on now to try to figure it out, he added.
Certainly going out and trying to get Omicron instead of a vaccine would be a “big mistake” given that the virus can be fatal or cause long-term impacts.
TO recent Public Health Ontario study found that the risk of hospitalization or death was 65% lower with Omicron compared to Delta.
But Rasmussen stressed that most people may not realize it’s mild, it just means you’re not hospitalized or in the ICU. He has many friends who ended up getting Omicron, despite being vaccinated, who had a hard time.
“They are not in hospital but it has left people breathless for over a week and some people are still starting to recover very slowly,” he said.
“I don’t consider it mild, that’s not, ‘Oh, I’m just going to take a couple of DayQuils and suck it up,’ that’s pretty disruptive to your life.”
This doesn’t mean the vaccines aren’t working, said Jennifer Gommerman, an immunologist at the University of Toronto, as they are doing a good job of preventing hospitalization and death.
“People who have received two doses of the vaccine don’t get as sick as people who aren’t vaccinated,” he said. In particular, T cells, another aspect of the immune system, appear to be acting up, even if the antibodies have faded.
Due to Omicron’s mutations, “it’s almost a different beast,” and that’s why people are getting infected with it.
Reinfections were “pretty rare” early in the pandemic, he added. But based on some emerging research, it appears that people are more likely to be reinfected with Omicron after they have recovered from a different variant than with Delta.
A recent report from Imperial College London found that the risk of reinfection with Omicron is approximately 5.4 times higher than with Delta. Another preprint study from South African researchers it also suggested that people are more prone to reinfection with Omicron after a previous infection with another strain.
Some past research on the pandemic has also suggested that “The more severe the infection, the more immunity people got,” said Dr. Charu Kaushic, a professor at McMaster University School of Medicine and a member of Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.
This should also be true for Omicron. If an infection is mild, “then your immunity would also be very mild.”
The duration of any type of protection also depends.
“For most people, that immunity lasts three to four months,” Kaushic said. “Having a previous infection is not a guarantee that you will never get another infection.”
But Omicron’s super contagion means many more people will be infected, so where does this leave us as a province and a country?
In South Africa, where Omicron was first detected, new infections appear to have peaked, and in the UK they are also starting to fallKaushic said.
“The wave length is much shorter for Omicron because it spreads so fast,” he added, comparing it to dry versus wet wood.
“It’s burning through the population so fast that it’s running out of people to infect.”
For Gommerman, a promising area of research is mucosal vaccines, administered through the nose, to stop the virus before it enters.
“I think that’s the next step,” he said.
“If you want to stop it dead in its tracks before it reaches the lungs, then that’s what you have to do.”
For now, if you want to have the best chance, regardless of whether you’ve had Omicron, you need to get the booster, Kaushic added.
That is exactly what Dias did, who received a double vaccination earlier in the summer after recovering.
“I think my case was mild because I had two vaccinations,” he said.
“So a third party will only make me that much stronger in my own self-defense.”
Reference-www.thestar.com