Repeat COVID-19 Positive Tests in Nursing Home Residents Identified Following Natural Infection

[TomCADem]

Source: Yale School of Public Health

COVID-19 took its largest toll on residents of U.S. nursing homes. Prior to the vaccine roll-out, many states reported that over a third of all cases and deaths occurred amongst this vulnerable population.

New research led by the Yale School of Public Health in collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Public Health (CT DPH) found evidence that helps explain why: Residents in long-term care facilities had a significantly higher rate of reinfection than people in the general population.

Published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, the study analyzed nine months of testing data, just prior to the roll-out of vaccines in long-term care facilities, a period that allowed researchers to look at test results in the setting of natural exposure to the virus.

They identified that 2.6% of residents in Connecticut’s 212 nursing homes had one or more repeat positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests occurring as early as 90 days after an initial positive test. This percentage was significantly higher than other demographics, such as younger adults, or community-dwelling elderly.

Read more: https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/repeat-covid-19-positive-tests-in-nursing-home-residents-identified-following-natural-infection/

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While there has been a lot of focus on "breakthrough "infections even though such infections are still relatively rare and are not likely to lead to hospitalization, there is not much focus on COVID-19 reinfections. Yet, this is a reason that is often given by anti-vaxxers, i.e., that many of them got and recovered from COVID.

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/01/1023393330/what-we-can-glean-from-rare-covid-19-reinfections

What We Can Glean From Rare COVID-19 Reinfections

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Can you just give me a sort of percentage? Do we know sort of what percentage of people have become reinfected?

ADALJA: It's likely less than 1%, depending upon the numbers that you look at. It's not a very common thing - at least - and it will get higher as we get further out. But right now, it's probably less than 1%.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: If you had COVID, though, and then got vaccinated, how protected are you then?

ADALJA: You're likely to be more protected than just having natural immunity. The data shows that people who have natural immunity - it's not nothing. It definitely is something that will likely protect you from the most severe consequences of a reinfection. But in general, the principle is that the immunity from natural infection is not as strong as what you get from a vaccine, and the vaccine will actually help you boost that immunity that you already have gained.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. One of the problems with nursing homes/longterm care faclities

is that you STILL have a significant portion of the staff who work in there - whether as nurses, nursing aides, and food/janitorial staff, who refused and still refuse to get vaccinated.

These facility residents are often not mobile and didn't just leave a facility to go to the store, get infected, and then bring it back to the facility. The virus was brought into the facility either by the staff or by visitors (the latter happening until many places restricted or forbade visitations).

And I am hearing more and more about reinfections. It's like the flu or a cold - people can "get it again". But obviously COVID-19 is far more lethal than any cold or flu.

This is why the whole idea of "herd immunity" is ridiculous (at least at this point) and I keep saying it over and over.

It doesn't preclude the need for a vaccine because it reduces the chance for someone who is vaccinated and gets infected, to spread it (by knocking down the amount of viral load they experience) versus someone who is unvaccinated... and it minimizes the chance to experience a severe case due to the vaccine priming the immune system to go after the virus (again due to reducing or in the epidemiology parlance "neutralizing" enough virus so it doesn't completely overwhelm the body).