I JUST HAD COVID—DO I HAVE TO WAIT TO GET VACCINATED THIS FALL?

Fact checked by Nick BlackmerFact checked by Nick Blackmer

• If you're coming off of a COVID infection, you might be confused about when you can get vaccinated for the virus and other common respiratory illnesses.
• You have about three months of immunity to COVID after infection, according to experts.
• However, experts say you can still get a COVID vaccine—or a flu or RSV shot—shortly after your symptoms have disappeared.

Testing positive for COVID can raise many questions: When can you go back to work? Do you have to wear a mask? When will your sense of taste come back?

And if you’re interested in getting vaccines this fall, you might also wonder if your positive test changes when you should get your shots.

After being approved by the Food and Drug Administration at the end of August, the COVID vaccine is now available nationwide, as are the flu and RSV vaccines. But with a COVID infection already throwing your immune system out of whack and providing some immunity from the virus, it’s understandable to be confused about the best timing for getting vaccinated for COVID and other common illnesses.

Here’s what to keep in mind when planning out your fall vaccine schedule after a recent COVID infection, according to infectious disease doctors and a pharmacist.

Are COVID Cases Rising?

The U.S. is starting to see a dip in COVID cases after cases appeared to rise this summer, but a lot of the virus is still circulating. The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that more than 15% of COVID tests conducted by healthcare providers came back positive for the virus and that emergency room visits for COVID are up 2% over the previous week. Unfortunately, deaths linked to the virus are also up 2%.

Those cases are being fueled by newer variants of the virus, including KP.3.1.1, KP.3, and LB.1, according to CDC data.

“It’s clear we are still in a cat and mouse game against new variants of COVID-19,” Mark Cameron, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, told Health. “I wish the booster was rolled out earlier than it has been this year and last, given the late summer infection levels we’ve seen.”

If You Recently Had COVID, When Should You Get Your COVID Vaccine?

The CDC recommends not getting any vaccinations when you have COVID to avoid exposing others. As for when you should get your COVID vaccine, the official CDC stance is that you “may” consider delaying it for up to three months after you were infected. 

Why wait to get vaccinated? “You will likely have some residual protection from the recent infection,” Shobha Swaminathan, MD, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told Health. 

Susan Kline, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, told Health that the "boost in immunity that people get from having a COVID infection can give them pretty good protective levels of antibodies up to about three months, and then they start to go down.”

Basically, you may not need to get the vaccine right after a COVID infection, but that doesn’t mean you can’t, Kline said. “It’s really not harmful” to get vaccinated against COVID soon after you test positive, she explained, as long as you’re feeling better before getting vaccinated so that you don’t experience side effects that could potentially exacerbate your condition.

Kline recommends waiting about two weeks from the start of your illness to get any vaccine, provided you feel back to normal. “It would be okay to get a vaccine after that,” she said.

If you were sick this summer and aren’t sure if you had COVID, it’s probably best to get your COVID vaccine sooner rather than later, John Sellick, DO, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at the University at Buffalo, told Health. “There were plenty of other things circulating this summer that could have made you sick,” he pointed out.

Should You Wait to Get Your Flu and RSV Vaccines After Having COVID?

Not really. Kline said that it “shouldn’t be a problem” to get the flu shot or RSV vaccine, provided you’re eligible, after a bout of COVID—but again, as long as it’s been a couple of weeks since you got the virus and you’re feeling better.

These vaccines target different viruses, which means that the protection you’d get from having had a COVID infection won’t transfer to protect you against them, Sellick said.

Swaminathan recommends that everyone get a flu vaccine, regardless of whether you’ve had a COVID infection. “While there is no ideal time for it, if flu activity is low in your area, you could delay getting the flu shot til late October or so to ensure that you have immunity for most of the flu season,” she said.

The RSV vaccine is only recommended for adults 75 and older, as well as those 60 and up who are at high risk for severe complications from RSV. 

“Adults who have already received the RSV vaccine do not need to get another dose each RSV season,” Swaminathan said. “Therefore, this would not be an annual dose.”

What to Keep in Mind When Planning Your Fall Vaccine Schedule

Generally speaking, most people should aim to get both the COVID and flu vaccines by the end of October, given that experts expect levels of the viruses to start increasing in the country soon. (You can get both vaccines at the same time.) 

But, of course, everyone’s needs are different. “One caveat of all of these vaccines is that it’s important to consider any chronic conditions you have and how many vaccines you may need,” Jason Yee, PharmD, a pharmacist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told Health. If you have an underlying health condition, it may be worth checking in with your primary care physician to see if you need to get your vaccines at a particular time.

While planning out when to get your vaccines is always helpful, Sellick recommends simply getting them if the opportunity presents itself. That means if your local pharmacy provides COVID or flu shots, go ahead and get them. “People tend to forget about this or make up excuses for why they don’t want to do it,” Sellick said. “Just get them when you can.”

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2024-09-16T20:08:55Z dg43tfdfdgfd