A groundbreaking study has revealed that seniors in long-term care and retirement homes who were previously infected with an Omicron variant of COVID-19 were not protected from reinfection within a few months.
The senior author and immunologist, Dawn Bowdish from McMaster University, expressed surprise at the study results as they challenge the current understanding of hybrid immunity.
Hybrid immunity is expected to occur when individuals have received both the COVID-19 vaccine and have been previously infected with the virus.
However, the McMaster study found that vaccinated seniors who had previous infections with Omicron variants in early 2022 were 20 times more likely to be reinfected with another Omicron variant later that year compared to vaccinated seniors who had not been infected.
Bowdish emphasized the importance of staying up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations and not relying solely on a previous infection for protection.
However, Bowdish noted that it is uncertain whether these study results are applicable to the general population or specific to seniors.
The study involved 750 vaccinated seniors in long-term care and retirement homes in Ontario and was published in eClinicalMedicine, a medical journal affiliated with The Lancet.
Bowdish stated that the study highlights the many unknowns about how the COVID-19 virus infects individuals.
She added, “Canada’s vaccination strategy assumes that recent infection provides some level of short-term protection against reinfection. Our study reveals that this assumption may not hold true for some individuals and certain variants.”
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