Can you get omicron if you've already had delta? How long does immunity last once you recover? Here's the latest.
- to eight-fold increase in reinfection from the omicron variant as compared to other variants — though those reports are preliminary.
“There is still no data regarding protection for omicron after natural infection with prior strains,”, chief of infectious disease at Children’s Medical Center Plano, told HuffPost. “What makes omicron very contagious are the changes in the spike protein of the virus, the part of the virus that binds human cells before infecting them. These mutations or changes make the virus very ‘sticky,’ so it attaches to cells easier with increased transmissibility.”
Of course, not every COVID lab test is sent for genetic sequencing to determine what variant a person has — and many people are now using rapid antigen tests at home. Still, given omicron’s dominance at the moment, it’s safe to assume that’s the variant you’ve got if you’re infected right now, Carreño said.One of the most pressing questions about reinfection is what the timeline might be — and for now, experts say we really don’t know.