Q&A: Should People Who’ve Tested Positive for COVID-19 Get The Vaccine?

As the first Covid-19 vaccine doses roll out across the country, a question is circulating among scientists and public-health experts: Should people who have already had the virus consider deferring vaccination? Medical professionals say even if you’ve had COVID-19, getting the vaccine may help prevent reinfection and lower your risk of getting sick again.

Last week the first shipments from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE made their way to health-care workers at facilities across the country. The Moderna  vaccine received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and began shipping doses over the weekend.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not made an official recommendation on whether people who’ve recovered from COVID-19 should be vaccinated.

People who have had COVID-19 may still benefit from a vaccine because we don’t know how long immunity lasts after you get better.

The vaccines weren’t specifically tested on people who had recovered from COVID-19, so it’s unclear what the side effects would be in this population.