Three out of five people in the U.S. now have a previous Covid-19 infection with the proportion higher among children according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The proportion of people with natural Covid antibodies increased from 34% in December to 42% in February as a wave of infections caused by the omicron variant swept through the country. The CDC didn't factor in people who had a vaccine-related immune response.
The data was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The increase in antibody prevalence was most pronounced among children, indicating a high rate of infections during the winter. The number of children and teenagers with Covid infections has gone up.
The rate of infections among children is higher than adults. As of April, only 28% of children 5- to 11-years-old and 59% of teens 12- to 17-years-old were fully vaccine free. Children under the age of 5 are not eligible for vaccine.
The group with the highest rate of vaccinations had the highest number of antibodies. The majority of adults are between the ages of 18 to 49 and 50 to 64.
74,000 blood samples were analyzed by the CDC from September to January. The sample size decreased in February. The CDC tested the samples for a specific type of antibody that is produced in response to Covid infections, not from vaccination.
CDC officials told reporters on a call Tuesday that the study did not measure whether people with prior infections had high enough levels of immunity. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that health officials believe there is a lot of protection in communities from vaccination, boosting and infection taken together, while cautioning that vaccination is the safest strategy to protect yourself against the virus.
Walensky told reporters during a call that they still encourage people with prior infections to get vaccinations. We don't know if that protection has waned. We don't know as much about that level of protection as we do about the protection we get from both vaccines and boosters.
Natural infections provide about 73% protection against hospitalization if a person is re-instated with BA.2. Pfizer's vaccine gave much higher protection against hospitalization at 98%. Peer review has not been done on the study.
According to data from the CDC, more than 70% of the US population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Infections and hospitalizations have dropped more than 90 percent since the peak of the omicron wave in January. There are more cases due to the BA.2 subvariant. According to CDC data, 29% of new infections in the U.S. are caused by the subvariant BA.2.12.1. According to Walensky, the public health agency believes that BA.2.12.1 spreads 25% faster than BA.2. She said that the CDC does not expect to see more severe disease from BA.2.12.1.
98% of the US population lives in areas where they don't need to wear masks indoors due to low Covid community levels, which takes into account both infections and hospitalizations. The CDC's mask mandate for public transportation was struck down by a U.S. district judge last week. The CDC recommends that people wear masks on public transportation.
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