Abstract

Did you have COVID-19? Maybe you are better protected than you think! COVID-19 has changed a lot during the past three years. This makes it harder to fight. To try to stop the virus from spreading, scientists created vaccines. And many people got vaccinated! But some people who had COVID-19 might not need a vaccine because they are already protected. We wanted to know if this is true. We looked at 65 studies and found out that a past infection offers good protection. This is especially true for older variants of the virus. The protection against the newest variant, Omicron, is weaker. It also declines faster with time. But the good news is that a past infection will still protect you from getting really sick!