If you're vaccinated for covid-19 and get exposed is that likely tantamount to a booster?

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
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Suppose you're exposed ~3 months after you're fully vaccinated. Maybe not a big viral dose, just a moderate exposure. Or any exposure, adjective withheld. They say you're unlikely to exhibit symptoms, or if you do, you're virtually certain to not require hospitalization.

Is that exposure to some strain of the virus apt to boost your immunity? It would seem likely that your body is going to mount another immune response that would result in more antibodies than before the exposure, in the same way that it mounts a greater immune response to the 2nd shot than the 1st shot for the mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer).
 

mike8675309

Senior member
Jul 17, 2013
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Anecdotal. My Father and Step-Mother both received their covid 19 vaccine shots. My Step-Mother became infected by covid after she was inoculated. Apparently, the impact of the infection is reduced if you have received a vaccination.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
Anecdotal. My Father and Step-Mother both received their covid 19 vaccine shots. My Step-Mother became infected by covid after she was inoculated. Apparently, the impact of the infection is reduced if you have received a vaccination.
Yes, this is what they are saying. If you are inoculated you are, they say, assured of not needing hospitalization or dieing. Now, it takes time before the shots take effect. Two weeks after getting Pfizer or Moderna you're ~90 efficacy, which is really great. Even greater is 2 weeks after the 2nd shot, when you're ~95% efficacy.

I still have heard or seen nothing about exposure acting as a booster, but I expect to at some point. You heard it here first!