Coronavirus
Immunologist: Omicron infection acts like booster vaccination
In vaccinated people, a Covid infection should act like a booster vaccination. Photo: Robert Michael/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
For those who have been vaccinated, a breakthrough infection with the omicron variant acts like a booster vaccination. This could have a positive effect on the infection situation in autumn.
According to the immunologist Carsten Watzl, breakthrough infections with the omicron variant of the coronavirus significantly increase the immune protection of vaccinated people.
“An infection is like a single dose of vaccine,” said Watzl of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “For vaccinated people, it acts like a booster with an adapted vaccine.” According to the Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, the current high number of infections and the associated immune protection can pay off in the autumn – “if no new, more dangerous variant comes along”.
Whether compulsory vaccination is still necessary in view of this is “the $100,000 question”. If Omikron remains the predominant variant, you will probably get through the cold season comparatively well even without compulsory vaccination. “The pessimistic scenario would be a virus variant that makes you as sick as Delta and as contagious as Omicron. Then we would have a big problem again with the large number of unvaccinated people.” For those who have not been vaccinated, even a previous omicron infection does not provide any reasonable protection against a serious illness with another virus variant. “This raises the question of compulsory vaccination as a precautionary measure. As an immunologist, I am of course always in favor of vaccination because it has been proven to be safer than an infection.”