Data from clinical trials suggest the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is safe and likely effective in people who were previously infected with the coronavirus, and vaccination should be offered to them, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Community on Immunization Practices was told during a meeting on Saturday.
Diagnostic or antibody testing is not recommended for vaccine decision-making, CDC’s Dr. Sarah Mbaeyi said during a presentation to the committee.
However, people with a current infection should not be vaccinated until a person has recovered, if they had symptoms, and if they’re clear to leave isolation. There’s no recommended minimum period between infection and vaccination, but since it appears reinfection is uncommon in the 90 days after initial infection, vaccination could be delayed until near the end of that period.
People who have a known Covid-19 exposure shouldn’t seek vaccination until their quarantine period has ended, to avoid exposing health care workers and others.
However, residents of long-term care facilities, for example, are already in contact with workers and they can be vaccinated, even if they’ve been exposed.
More info: There’s no safety or efficacy data for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in people who were treated for Covid-19 with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma, Mbaeyi said, but vaccination should be deferred for at least 90 days “as a precautionary measure, until additional information becomes available to avoid interference of the treatment with vaccine-induced immune responses.”
