If you’ve already had a COVID-19 infection, the CDC strongly recommends that you get vaccinated. Available evidence shows that recently fully vaccinated individuals and those recently infected by the virus that causes COVID-19 both have a low risk of subsequent infection for at least 6 months. Beyond that, while people may get some level of protection from a prior infection, we don’t know how strong, how uniform, or how durable that protection could be. People’s antibody response after infection can vary widely. Vaccination provides a higher, more robust, and more consistent level of immunity to protect people from COVID-19 than infection. People who have already had COVID-19 and have fully recovered should get vaccinated. It gives you longer-lasting and more robust protection, which is needed to conquer the variants currently circulating in this country. Studies have shown that vaccination provides a strong boost in protection in people who have recovered from COVID-19.