Anyone who has ever had a corona infection usually has a higher level of protection against new infections and diseases afterwards. However, reinfection is by no means harmless – emphasizes immunologist Carsten Watzl. To explain, he uses a car comparison.
More and more people are becoming infected with the corona virus a second time. This is ensured by newly occurring virus variants, which on the one hand are considered to be more contagious and on the other hand tend to escape the immune response of previous infections and vaccinations.
According to experts, however, it is a fallacy that such a reinfection is always harmless. Why – that explains immunologist Carsten Watzl on “Twitter” using an auto comparison:
“A corona infection is like driving too fast through a curve,” writes the doctor there. That could
In the second cornering that is too fast, you do it “a little better”, says Watzl. However, some accidents still occur. “One practice lap doesn’t make you a Formula 1 driver,” he explains. Therefore, people with reinfections are also exposed to a health risk the second time. Because: “Each additional fast cornering increases the risk again.”
According to Watzl, we will “probably never manage” to be 100 percent sure of getting through the curve too quickly. He therefore considers it “negligent” to suggest that one should now intentionally become infected.
For example, the virologist Klaus Stöhr recently spoke out in a live talk on “Bild” in favor of getting infected now so that he would be better protected in the fall. He said that wearing a mask on public transport was no longer necessary because everyone will infect sooner or later.
Of course, the risk for a person under the age of 60 with a healthy immune system and who has been vaccinated three times is relatively low, concedes immunologist Watzl. “Therefore, such people can lose their fear of the virus,” he says. “But you should keep respect.” And also limit the number of infections with simple measures.
In his statements, Watzl refers to a study that US doctor Eric Topol shared on Twitter. This also makes it clear that there are still considerable health risks even in the case of reinfection.
According to experts, the proportion of reinfections in all infections that occurred at the beginning of May was still in the single-digit percentage range – as epidemiologist Hajo Zeeb said, the trend was rising. “Because of the milder course of omicron and the associated lower built-up immune response, re-infection is now more common and more likely with increasing distance from the last vaccination,” he explained.
Because of the built-up immunity, later infections tended to be milder, but as always there were exceptions, he emphasized. The immunologist Andreas Radbruch also emphasized that vaccinated people who have recovered have much more effective protection against reinfection than only those who have recovered or only vaccinated.
