As many as 10,000 Ontarians have contracted COVID-19 not once, but twice since the beginning of the pandemic. Now, as the Omicron variant makes up virtually all cases within the province, experts say it’s resulting in a higher presence of reinfection.
Experts have long known that a COVID-19 infection provides partial protection from reinfection, however, initial research suggests that the immunity provided by the Omicron variant, and its sub variants, may not be as durable as past iterations of the virus.
Carol, who requested CTV News Toronto omit her surname, has tested positive for COVID-19 three times since the pandemic began despite being fully vaccinated.
“It’s been exhausting,” Carol said in an interview Wednesday.
The first infection was in early 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, while the two most recent took place within the span of one month this winter. All three infections were confirmed by rapid antigen tests.
Carol’s youngest son contracted COVID-19 in late February — she believes he acquired it from a teammate who tested positive on his hockey team.
Not long after, Carol began feeling unwell.
With a “scratchy” throat and incessant sneezing, along with irritated eyes and ears, she almost mistook her symptoms as seasonal allergies. But to be safe, she decided to perform a rapid antigen test anyway. It came back positive for COVID-19.
Carol and her family completed their isolation and recovered from the virus, after which she said they had a couple days of “wellness.”
By mid-March, her older son, a university student, began presenting symptoms.
“He was positive,” she said.
Within days, Carol was feeling unwell again. This time, with a different set of symptoms.
“It was like a brutal head cold,” she said. Once again, her family was forced to isolate.
The family’s symptoms were not severe and they were able to recover at home, but Carol said the time spent in isolation and recovering twice took a toll on her family.
“It put strain on my husband, who works full time and is our sole provider,” she said.
“Not only does he have to work long hours, but he had to take on additional work at home, caring for the family, grocery shopping, meal prepping, and getting our younger one to and from his extracurriculars, school and sports, which resulted in him having to miss work on occasion.”
REINFECTIONS ARE NORMAL
While reinfection can be surprising and cause significant disruptions to daily life, infectious diseases experts say Carol isn’t alone in her experience. In fact, they say reinfections are normal.
Over the last several weeks, BA.2 – a “stealth,” more transmissible subvariant of Omicron than BA.1 or BA.1.1 – has trended upwards in the province, making up at least half of Ontario’s reported infections.
“Since these viruses are not identical, the risk of an infection has probably increased,” Dr. Peter Juni, scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, told CTV News Toronto Wednesday.
While the notion of reinfection can shatter the once-mainstream narrative that an individual who contracts COVID-19 develops a shield of immunity, Juni said this trope has been “futile” from the very beginning.
“The response after Omicron is not that dramatic in terms of boosting your immunity, including your antibodies,” he said. “Your antibodies are boosted a little bit, but they start to go down a little bit overtime.”
In particular, Omicron’s transmissibility has thrived because of its “secret of success,” as Juni put it — its ability to circumvent the immune system.
“This means, if you have a virus like Omicron…that is able to evade the immune system. Once antibodies start to go down over time, you are able to get reinfected. That’s normal,” Juni said.
IMMUNITY STILL RELEVANT
Despite the reality of reinfection, post-infection immunity is still relevant, according to Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious diseases specialist in Mississauga, Ont. Instead of eliminating the possibility of contracting COVID-19 a second time, the first infection can still protect an individual from encountering severe disease the second time around.
“The virus can change itself just a little bit so that the immune system doesn’t recognize it right away, but the virus in itself is milder,” Chakrabarti said in an interview Wednesday.
Just like contracting a cold in 2016, and then coming down with another one years later, Chakrabarti said the idea of being reinfected with the same virus has been with us our whole lives — COVID-19 is no exception.
“Just like with other respiratory viruses,” Chakrabarti said, “We are going to be infected with COVID-19 multiple times in our lives.”
“It’ll just be a normal part of life.”