There may be an upside to having had COVID-19, according to new research. If you’ve had COVID-19, it may guard you from the common cold, a study published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine found.
Three coronaviruses can cause severe and fatal disease in humans: MERS-CoV, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2. But four endemic coronaviruses (eCOVs) — like the common cold — typically cause symptomatic, mild respiratory illnesses. Those eCOVs make up 15% to 30% of common colds.
Investigators looked at polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results from a group of 4,935 people who went to Boston Medical Center for respiratory illness from November 2020 to October 2021. Researchers put the participants into three categories: 501 already had COVID-19, 1,565 had the COVID-19 vaccine but no infection, and 2,869 had no prior infection and weren’t vaccinated.
Having COVID-19 before was linked to a nearly 50% lower risk for a future eCOV during the follow-up period of 120 days. Researchers noted that getting the COVID-19 vaccine didn’t seem to give people the same protection as having had the actual virus.
“Incidence of symptomatic eCoV infection was significantly lower in those with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and no vaccination (2 of 275 or 0.7%) as compared with the individuals who had been deemed fully vaccinated but had no known prior SARS-CoV-2 infection (44 of 1,463 or 3%),” the authors wrote.
“Our observations have important implications for future pan-CoV vaccines and other disease prevention strategies,” the authors added.The news comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that it’s tracking the new COVID variant KP.3. In the two-week period of time ending June 8, the CDC said KP.3 is growing and will be the most common SARS-CoV-2 lineage nationally.
