When to Become the Vaccine After Having COVID-19

An communicable diseases expert offers guidance on how long you should wait later a COVID-19 diagnosis to get a vaccine, and why information technology's important to time it correct.

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Hundreds of millions doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the United States as of May v, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the vaccine is now more than accessible, with anyone over age 12 eligible to get the shot.

Though vaccines are now widely available, the virus is still circulating, with tens of thousands of people diagnosed with COVID-xix every day. This has some people wondering: If I've recently tested positive for COVID-19, how long should I expect to be vaccinated?

To help answer this question, Health Matters spoke with Dr. David Goldberg, an internist and infectious illness specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Group Westchester. Dr. Goldberg stressed the importance of getting the vaccine if y'all've had COVID-19.

"Having had a COVID-19 infection gives you a sure level of protection, but getting the vaccine later on will give yous even greater protection and for a longer flow of time," says Dr. Goldberg, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "In addition, there is prove that getting the vaccine may help protect you confronting COVID-xix variants."

Here are Dr. Goldberg's tips for planning your COVID-19 vaccine if you've recently had the disease.

Dr. David Goldberg

1. If you've tested positive for COVID-nineteen, wait until y'all are no longer infectious to go the vaccine. The CDC says well-nigh people do not take active COVID-nineteen infection afterward 10 days, then you should wait at to the lowest degree ten days from the onset of illness to receive your vaccine. If y'all tested positive but didn't show any symptoms, yous should wait at least 10 days from the date of the positive test. In that location is no need to wait longer than that.

While at that place is no known danger in receiving the vaccine also early on subsequently having COVID-19, getting a vaccine while you are infectious may brand the vaccine less effective because your immune system might exist suppressed by COVID-19, Dr. Goldberg says. Some COVID-19 symptoms — such equally loss of senses of olfactory property and taste, fatigue, or trunk aches — may last longer than 10 days, simply waiting x days until you are no longer infectious is what's important.

ii. If you had COVID-19 and were treated with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma, look at least 90 days earlier getting a COVID-19 vaccine. A number of patients have received ambulatory plasma, which is blood from recovered COVID-19 patients; it is authorized for hospitalized patients. Another treatment, monoclonal antibodies, aims to prevent high-risk COVID-nineteen patients from having to exist hospitalized. Monoclonal antibodies are given as an intravenous infusion to patients who accept mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 and are at high risk of their illness becoming severe. This includes people 65 and older and those who are obese or have medical conditions such as diabetes, obesity, or kidney disease.

All the vaccines are based upon exposing a person to the spike poly peptide, which is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. This exposure is what stimulates an immune response. Monoclonal antibodies may stay in your system for upward to 90 days, and they might neutralize the fasten poly peptide in the vaccine and prevent the immune response from occurring, Dr. Goldberg explains.

3. Information technology doesn't make a difference which vaccine you receive. The recommendation for people who have recently recovered from COVID-19, as for all other situations, is to have whichever vaccine is available to you. If you are offered the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, make certain y'all get both doses. The second dose seems to be particularly beneficial in protecting confronting the variants.

"It's important to get vaccinated if you've had COVID-nineteen, and to become information technology at the correct time then it's equally constructive equally possible," says Dr. Goldberg. "You'll protect yourself, your family unit, and your friends, and help keep us on course for ending this pandemic."

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