the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Westwood NJ, Westwood Mayor Ray Arroyo comments on second COVID infections a recent paper in Nature Medicine has been misinterpreted by some as providing evidence that repeat infections are somehow worse than first-time infections.
Here’s the actual situation: second infections are far less dangerous than first infections, with respect to severe, critical, and fatal Covid-19. This is true regardless of vaccination status.
Westwood Mayor Ray Arroyo , “Recently, I had my second dance with COVID 19.
It was a milder experience than my first post-fully- vaccinated, but non boosted, go round. This time around it presented as a common head cold.
This article debunks the misinterpretation of a recent study, which suggested that the current variants of the virus are more adversely impactful ( higher likelihood of death and hospitalizations) among the vaccinated population than amongst the non-vaxed. As with all data, the devil is in the details which can be nuanced. And interpretations not reflecting that nuance can lead to faulty conclusions.
Today we know more about COVID 19, and the fast tracked vaccines, than we did in the Spring of 2020. And we’ll know more, again, from longitudinal studies carried out over the next 5-10 years.
The antidote for cynicism, mistrust, fear and disbelief is more data driven , peer reviewed studies – which we can examine, and then make up our own minds.
I just found this to be an interesting read along those lines.”
The misrepresentation comes from not applying the control group correctly.
“In this study of 5,819,264 people, including 443,588 people with a first infection, 40,947 people who had reinfection and 5,334,729 noninfected controls, we showed that compared to people with no reinfection, people who had reinfection exhibited increased risks of all-cause mortality, hospitalization and several prespecified outcomes.”
1. Secondary infections are not as bad as first infections.
2. Secondary infections increase the risk of bad outcomes compared to non re-infected individuals.
3. Bottom line – try to avoid all infections – they are not good for you.