The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that nearly 60% of Americans have already been exposed to COVID-19 at least once throughout the course of the health crisis.
By February 2022, the majority of the population had already been exposed to the deadly virus, which is almost double the proportion that health professionals observed in December 2021. The numbers were revealed in data given by the health agency on Tuesday.
Exposure to the Coronavirus
The agency researcher who led the recent study said during a news briefing that the evidence of previous COVID-19 infections substantially increased in every age group. During the Omicron variant surge in children and adolescents, the number of infections significantly increased.
Health experts suspect this is because many people in those age groups were still unvaccinated against the coronavirus. The increase was seen to be smallest among adults aged 65 or older who had the highest rate of vaccination and may have been more likely to take extra precautions, as per MSN.
In December, 37% of adults under 50 had antibodies against the coronavirus, compared to 64% this February. Among people aged 50 to 64, antibody presence jumped from 29% to 50%, and adults 65 and older saw an increase of 19% to 33%. However, the highest increase was seen in children, where antibody presence rose from 45% to 75%.
During a phone call with the media, the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said that a previous infection with the coronavirus provided some protection against subsequent illnesses. She said that there was plenty of protection in communities both from vaccination, boosting, and the previous infection.
According to USA Today, the medical expert noted that vaccination and boosting provided much more reliable protection against the virus than a previous infection. Age groups that had the highest vaccination rates were found to have the smallest increases in infections over the winter when measured by their antibodies.
Natural Immunity
Dr. Kristie Clarke, a pediatrician who led the study for the CDC, said on Tuesday that it was unknown how long infection-induced immunity would last. She argued that experts could not determine whether or not people who previously got infected still have protection from a prior infection in the study.
The medical professional noted that people infected with the coronavirus in the last three months might have a bigger window to wait for a second booster dose. Authorities pulled the estimates from random, anonymous tests of blood samples that were sent to commercial laboratories in the U.S.
Experts measured antibodies made against pieces of the virus that cause COVID-19 which are not generated by man-made vaccines. This means that they estimated what percentage of the population had been infected by the coronavirus.
The health agency said that the antibodies they measured for the study stay positive for at least two years after infection. Medical professionals noted that this means that the study should capture infections that have already happened since the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported.
Related Article: Biden Administration Wants More COVID-19 Patients Be Treated With Pfizer's Paxlovid As Hundreds Die Daily
