More people are catching coronavirus a second time, heightening long COVID risk, experts say
LOS ANGELES — Emerging evidence suggests that catching the coronavirus a second time can heighten long-term health risks, a worrisome development as the circulation of increasingly contagious omicron subvariants leads to greater numbers of Californians being reinfected.
Earlier in the pandemic, it was assumed that getting infected afforded some degree of lasting protection, for perhaps a few months.
As the coronavirus mutates, though, that’s no longer a given. And each individual infection carries the risk not only for acute illness but the potential to develop long COVID.
“The additive risk is really not trivial, not insignificant. It’s really substantial,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs Saint Louis Healthcare System.
According to a preprint study
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