People who have been infected with COVID-19 and then receive a first shot of a vaccine will have greater protection than those who have not been infected and vaccinated.
This, according to Professor Peter McIntyre from the University of Otago and medical adviser for New Zealand’s Immunisation Advisory Centre.
He made the comment during a Fiji National University virtual panel discussion on COVID-19 recently.
“Although I’m not recommending COVID infection as the first thing to do before the vaccine, if you’ve been unfortunate enough to have that happen to you, then I guess the good news is that a single dose of vaccine is going to protect you very, very strongly in the future.”
Prof McIntyre said vaccination did not completely protect a person against infection and transmission as much as they protected against severe disease.
“However, that means that obviously some people can still develop infection but there is good evidence now that the chances of transmission, even in a household, even when you’re all together potentially and locked down, the chances of transmitting to another household member from a vaccinated person, half or more than half, but they’re not reduced to zero.”
