Why a Vaccinated Person May Contract Covid-19, Expert Explains

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - One of the concerns that has arisen among the public is why someone can still contracting Covid-19 despite already receiving vaccine shots. Some believe that the emergence of new coronavirus variants as the sole cause of vaccinated people still able to contract the virus. 

An expert suspects that the deaths and general cases caused by Covid-19 are mainly driven by the new Alpha, Beta, and Delta strains. 

Citing University of Airlangga’s (UNAIR) official website, there are a number of reasons why a person can get reinfected. This was explained by Agung Dwi Wahyu Widodo, UNAIR immunologist and the university’s medicine faculty lecturer.

Widodo elaborated that the first reason a vaccinated person can contract coronavirus is due the antibody from the vaccination has yet reached sufficient levels which disables a person’s immune response to neutralize a contracted virus.

A number of cases, he said, show reinfections of the Alpha variant and Beta variant even though the statistics are considerably low. Secondly, he suspects that certain types of people have not built a high amount of antibodies which makes viruses to remain and cause an infection. 

He assures that the Sinovac vaccine that is used in the country’s mass vaccination can fend off the two new variants. 

“A reinfection can happen caused by a different coronavirus variant, even though they might have already been vaccinated,” said Widodo who is also the East Java Covid-19 task force’s board of expert members. 

Read: Covid-19 Task Force Looking Into the Spread of Delta Variant

WINDA OKTAVIA