As the U.S. enters another respiratory virus season, Americans are likely to encounter the COVID-19 virus – again.
For many, this might be their second, third or even fourth time getting sick. So, what should people expect this time around?
Health experts say the gravity of your next COVID-19 episode depends on a variety of personal and environmental factors including your age, underlying medical conditions, vaccination status and the variants that happen to be circulating.
“There is really not a guarantee of what happens if you’re reinfected with COVID,” said Raynard Washington, director of the health department of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and chair of the Big Cities Health Coalition, which represents local health departments nationwide.
Here are key things to keep in mind about repeat COVID infections as we approach the fall and winter months.
COVID symptoms after reinfection
The most common symptoms of a COVID-19 infection are fever, cough, muscle aches and sore throat, said Dr. Robert Hopkins, Jr., medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Some people also report diarrhea and fatigue but other symptoms common at the beginning of the pandemic, like the loss of taste and smell, are less common today.
This is partly due to the changing variants, health experts say. The variants circulating today have genetic mutations that cause certain symptoms but not others.
Long COVID:Teens and kids are showing surprising new symptoms
Different symptoms, and severity of symptoms, may also depend on a person’s immunity. A young, healthy person who is up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines and has had a previous infection will likely experience milder illness their second or third time. However, this isn’t everyone’s experience.
Others are at greater risk if they’re reinfected. Hopkins said severe infections are more likely to occur among people who are unvaccinated, older, immunocompromised or have multiple chronic conditions.
“But I also see infections in people I wouldn’t expect, young and otherwise healthy,” he said. “As much as I’d like to say we have good predictors, we really don’t.”
Repeat infections and long COVID
Some studies suggest Americans are less likely to develop long COVID from the omicron variant than they would have from virus strains that appeared earlier in the pandemic.
This is not a hard fast rule: the newer variants haven’t been around long enough to determine that for certain. But Hopkins said there’s always a risk of developing long COVID with each new infection.
“The more infections, the more times you roll the dice, the more risk you have,” he said. “You don’t see the risk diminish as people have repeated infections.”
Studies show COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of developing long COVID, so health experts encourage Americans to get the updated shot when it becomes available this fall.
The role of vaccination
The Food and Drug Administration approved the latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine Thursday targeting the omicron variant KP.2 strain for Moderna’s Spikevax and Pfizer’s Comirnaty shots, both of which use messenger RNA technology.
As the virus mutates, “We want to make sure our immune system is up to date, like our iPhone,” Washington said. “You want those latest updates to protect your phone and make sure it’s functioning properly.”
In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the new vaccine for all Americans 6 months old and older. Major pharmacy chains say they expect shipments of doses to arrive at stores in the upcoming days.
In addition to reducing long COVID risk, health experts say getting vaccinated also reduces the risk of developing severe symptoms that may lead to hospitalization or death.
“The huge success of these vaccines is that they’re reducing severity of illness and saving lives,” Washington said. “The vaccines protect us on the front end to give our body the best fighting chance to recover from the virus.”
Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@usatoday.com.
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