Scientists from Yale School of Public Health emphasize the continuing importance of vaccines and booster shots in controlling infections from highly contagious new variants of COVID-19.
The findings show that not only are vaccinations and boosting important for lowering the individual risk of infection, but they also aid in controlling COVID-19 within a larger population.
With new COVID-19 variants and sub-variants driving current surges in infections, being both vaccinated and boosted is critically important.
The research is published in PNAS Nexus and was conducted by Jeffrey Townsend et al.
In the study, the researchers used mathematical calculations to determine the likelihood of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant after an infected person emerges from various lengths of quarantine.
The calculations considered the virus’s incubation period, incubation time, and test sensitivity in detecting the Omicron variant.
The team showed that vaccines and booster shots at both the individual and population levels are critically important to limiting virus transmission.
An individual that is recently vaccinated—or even better, recently boosted—substantially decreases their risk of contracting COVID-19.
However, once infected, being recently vaccinated or boosted doesn’t change transmission all that much.
Therefore, recent vaccination and boosting don’t affect the length of quarantine necessary for an individual who is infected with Omicron.
However, if the population where that infected individual is located is highly vaccinated and boosted, then if that infected individual emerges from quarantine still infected, far fewer people are likely to contract COVID-19 from them.
The team concluded that within populations where there are high levels of vaccination and boosting, it can be suitable to require quarantines of lower durations and to conduct less frequent testing.
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