Will the vaccine work if you already had COVID-19? CBC asked an expert

Will the vaccine work if you already had COVID? Matthew Miller, an associate professor of infectious diseases and immunology at McMaster University in Hamilton explains. For the full interview watch the video at the bottom of the story.

Will the vaccine work if you already had COVID?

Matthew Miller: 

Yes, so one of the issues right now for individuals who have already been infected is that we don't know what every individual's immune response looks like in terms of the magnitude of the immune response that they've mounted. So, the recommendation right now is that when the vaccine is publicly available, that everyone get it. For individuals who already have sufficient immunity, the vaccine will just add to that. And for individuals who may have been previously infected but, maybe, experienced a very mild or asymptomatic case, in those individuals, it's possible that their immune response might not have been strong enough to protect them from a subsequent infection. And so what the vaccine will do again is just boost that immunity to get them over that threshold that they need to be protected in the future. 

Watch the full interview with Matthew Miller below.

How does the COVID-19 vaccine work and how safe is it? CBC Asks an infectious disease scientist

4 years ago

Duration 27:57

Matthew Miller, an associate professor of infectious diseases and immunology at McMaster University in Hamilton, takes your questions about the COVID-19 vaccine.