Q: I’m in my late 30’s with a history of asthma since adolescence and I’m quite certain that I had COVID-19 this past spring, given the symptoms that I had at the time. However, I was never tested for the virus, at that time, or since.

When I saw my Primary Care Physician (PCP) last week, she recommended that I get one of the latest COVID vaccines by the end of October. I am reluctant to get it, because I’ve read that the immunity you get from having the disease is better than what you can get from any of the vaccines, so why is my PCP still recommending I get a vaccine?

A: The latest recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC are the result of a carefully conducted study of 7,300 patients with COVID admitted to 187 different hospitals in nine different states. Tests showed their cases were from the latest variant.

Antibody testing revealed which of these patients had had COVID-19 previously, but who had not had any of the vaccines, and a review of state-maintained immunization records revealed which had already had either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccinations. Analysis of the data showed that the unvaccinated patients were between 5 and 6 times more likely to have another COVID infection serious enough to cause hospitalization than the previously vaccinated patients.

The main lesson to be learned from this study result is that being infected with one strain of COVID-19 does not mean you are protected from a newly evolved variant of the same virus, but that either of the two vaccines named above did offer much better protection against that newest variant.

Your PCP is very correct in her recommendation, particularly if you wish to avoid the inconvenience and expense of being hospitalized with a disease that is highly vaccine-preventable. This is also true for the vaccines against these newest variants, which also significantly decrease the likelihood that you would pass one of these variants along to a fragile, elderly relative or friend, even if you were exposed to one of these variants.

Thanks to Tina R. for this question. To learn more about this and many other health topics, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians’ website familydoctor. org, where you can search for your topic of interest.

If you have a topic you would like to hear more about, you may also message me at paulmdake@gmail.com.

Dr. Paul Dake, a Newberry native, is a retired family physician. He lives in Pinconning, Michigan.