>>14123998This variant’s infectiousness — including its ability to evade immune systems and prevent long-lasting immunity for those people who are infected with it — is one of the reasons why it’s been able to persist and come back,
The risk of reinfection from the Omicron COVID variant may be 16 times higher than Delta
Approximately 94% of people must be immune in order to successfully halt transmission, according to the Mayo Clinic.
A reinfection is defined as a positive SARS-COV-2 test more than 3 months after a previous positive test. We found that the relative risk of reinfection was much higher (at least 5x) with the Omicron variant than it was with Delta variant.
A study to measure previous infection found that just before the 3rd wave in May 2021 almost half of blood donors in South Africa had already been infected. .
How severe a reinfection is depends on how severe the first one was and previous infections were
vaccinations have a set dose, catching it leaves it up to chance “If you had a mild infection, didn’t get a very good immune response, and you get exposed again with a big dose of the virus, it’s definitely possible to be reinfected and become more ill the 2nd time
If you had a moderate to severe infection the first time, you may be immune for up to 6 months, but if you had very mild symptons the 1st time, then the 2nd infection can occur within 6 weeks
Get omicron, you will be unlikely to get omicron again for the next few months based on what we've seen previously, but I'm less confident in that statement than I would have been for prior variants, given what we've seen."
