🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 84 (from laksa128)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa084.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html","crawl_time":1772883330,"first_indexed_time":1692264690,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,nytimes!www,\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html s443","src_root_hash":"4566504020376537684","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"How Bad Is Getting Covid Multiple Times? What to Know About Reinfection - The New York Times","meta_descriptions":["Reinfections are becoming more common. Experts are still unsure about how damaging they can be."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Advertisement\nSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\nReinfections are becoming more common. Experts are still unsure about how damaging they can be.\nCredit...\nMatt Chase\nAug. 17, 2023\nDoctors and scientists who study Covid-19 agree that for most people, getting infected for a second — or third or fourth — time is basically inevitable. The longer the virus sticks around, the\nmore common\nrepeat infections have and will become, especially in light of the\nsummer uptick\nand a new\ndominant variant\n.\nThere is no risk-free Covid infection. But researchers are trying to untangle just how damaging repeated infections might be — whether symptoms tend to become more or less severe from one bout to the next, and whether one’s risk of developing long Covid increases after multiple illnesses.\nThere is a dearth of data on Covid outcomes, including what proportion of people with repeat infections go on to develop longer-term complications, said Dr. Marc Sala, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center. But here’s what we know so far.\nThe severity of repeat infections\nFor many people who get Covid multiple times, subsequent infections will be as mild as or milder than their first,\nemerging\ndata\nshows, likely because of partial immunity from previous infections, vaccination and the fact that the latest circulating variants generally cause less severe symptoms. There are a few exceptions — notably, among some people who are immunocompromised, older or had particularly severe previous infections. People who had a severe first infection are more likely to end up hospitalized or to require medical attention for a reinfection, said Emily Hadley, a research data scientist at RTI International who studies long Covid.\nReinfection and long Covid\nThe chances you will get long Covid from a reinfection are fairly unpredictable — several experts interviewed for this story used the metaphor of Russian roulette. The milder your symptoms, the less likely you are to get long Covid, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. But every time you get infected, no matter the severity, there is always a chance that you can develop longer-term symptoms.\nA\nbuzzy paper\nthat was published in Nature Medicine last fall showed that people with two or more Covid infections were more than three times as likely to develop lung and heart issues, and over 1.5 times as likely to have a neurological disorder, including brain fog and strokes, than those who were only infected once. The study used data collected from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers, which meant the participants tended to be older than the general population, and overwhelmingly male. But it showed, in pretty stark terms, that multiple infections are worse than one, said one of its authors, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Healthcare System.\nDr. Sala said he frequently sees patients who were more or less fine after their first couple of infections wind up with long Covid in the wake of a third or fourth infection.\nHow we choose health experts to talk to.\n \nTimes reporters often spend weeks interviewing doctors, researchers and other health professionals to help report an article. We seek leaders in their fields, watch out for conflicts of interest and try to get a variety of viewpoints.\n“Just because you were lucky enough previously to not have more persistent symptoms, that’s not a reassurance you won’t the next time around,” he said.\nStill, it’s not a foregone conclusion that reinfection definitively raises the risk of long Covid, said Fikadu Tafesse, a virologist at Oregon Health & Science University. “Reinfection is very contentious,” he said. “Literally depending on which paper you are reading, there’s contradicting information regarding that. So I don’t know what to believe.”\nDr. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that the overall risk of developing long Covid is still low, and it’s far lower now than it was at the start of the pandemic, when infections tended to be more severe.\nReinfection can worsen symptoms in people who already have long Covid, said Dr. Chin-Hong. Other people with long Covid may not see a change in their symptoms.\nOK, so now what?\nIt’s easy to feel a sense of fatalism about reinfection, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego. But he stressed that you can reduce your risk with common-sense measures like eating dinner outside while the weather’s warm and not hanging out with friends when they’re feeling sick.\nStill, there’s a lot beyond our control. “You want to not get it if you can, but I’m not sure I would live in a bubble to try and not get it,” Dr. Chin-Hong said.\nHe also noted that there are ways to lower the risk of long-term complications from Covid: An\nupdated vaccine\n, which can help buffer against reinfection, will be available this fall, and antivirals like Paxlovid may\nreduce the risk\nof developing long Covid.\nDr. Chin-Hong said that he walks around with a mask in his pocket, but wouldn’t pull out of a trip or avoid hugging a friend he ran into out of concerns about the virus. “I just do the best that I can,” he said. “But I’m not fearful.”\nRelated Content\nMore in Live\nEric Helgas for The New York Times\nSonia Pulido\nEric Helgas for The New York Times\nGetty Images\nEditors’ Picks\nJustin Sullivan\/Getty Images\nDenis Reggie\nTrending in The Times\nIndigital.Tv\nTierney L. Cross\/The New York Times\nSony Pictures Classics\nAndrew Digby\/Dept. of Conservation, New Zealand, via Associated Press\nAmanda Shae Home Team Realty Group\nRicardo Nagaoka for The New York Times\nJustin Tallis\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\nGetty Images\nThe New York Times\nLindsey Whitaker\nAdvertisement\nSKIP ADVERTISEMENT","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to content](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html#site-index)\n\nSearch & Section Navigation\n\nSection Navigation\n\nSearch\n\n[Live](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/well)\n\n[Log in](https:\/\/myaccount.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2023%252F08%252F17%252Fwell%252Flive%252Fcovid-reinfection.html&asset=masthead)\n\nSaturday, March 7, 2026\n\n[Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper)\n\n[Live](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/well)\\|How Bad Is a Second (or Third or Fourth) Case of Covid?\n\nhttps:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html\n\n- Share full article\n- 781\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html#after-top)\n\nSupported by\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html#after-sponsor)\n# How Bad Is a Second (or Third or Fourth) Case of Covid?\nReinfections are becoming more common. Experts are still unsure about how damaging they can be.\n\n- Share full article\n- 781\n\n![An illustration of a Covid-19 virus particle with bent red arrows around the circle pointing to red dice that stand in for the spike proteins.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/08\/16\/opinion\/16WELL-COVID-REINFECTION\/16WELL-COVID-REINFECTION-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nCredit...Matt Chase\n\n[![Dani Blum](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2020\/03\/17\/reader-center\/dani-blum\/dani-blum-thumbLarge-v2.png)](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/dani-blum)\n\nBy [Dani Blum](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/dani-blum)\n\nAug. 17, 2023\n\n[Leer en español](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/es\/2023\/08\/29\/espanol\/covid-reinfeccion.html \"Read in Spanish\")\n\nDoctors and scientists who study Covid-19 agree that for most people, getting infected for a second — or third or fourth — time is basically inevitable. The longer the virus sticks around, the [more common](https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/72\/wr\/mm7225a3.htm) repeat infections have and will become, especially in light of the [summer uptick](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/08\/well\/live\/covid-summer-surge.html) and a new [dominant variant](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/11\/well\/live\/covid-variant-eris-eg5.html).\n\nThere is no risk-free Covid infection. But researchers are trying to untangle just how damaging repeated infections might be — whether symptoms tend to become more or less severe from one bout to the next, and whether one’s risk of developing long Covid increases after multiple illnesses.\n\nThere is a dearth of data on Covid outcomes, including what proportion of people with repeat infections go on to develop longer-term complications, said Dr. Marc Sala, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center. But here’s what we know so far.\n\n## The severity of repeat infections\nFor many people who get Covid multiple times, subsequent infections will be as mild as or milder than their first, [emerging](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2023.06.29.23292043v1.full.pdf) [data](https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC9961977\/) shows, likely because of partial immunity from previous infections, vaccination and the fact that the latest circulating variants generally cause less severe symptoms. There are a few exceptions — notably, among some people who are immunocompromised, older or had particularly severe previous infections. People who had a severe first infection are more likely to end up hospitalized or to require medical attention for a reinfection, said Emily Hadley, a research data scientist at RTI International who studies long Covid.\n\n## Reinfection and long Covid\nThe chances you will get long Covid from a reinfection are fairly unpredictable — several experts interviewed for this story used the metaphor of Russian roulette. The milder your symptoms, the less likely you are to get long Covid, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. But every time you get infected, no matter the severity, there is always a chance that you can develop longer-term symptoms.\n\n## More on the Virus\n- **Is It Cold, Flu or Covid?:** With similar symptoms, it can be difficult to tell which illness is which. [Here’s what to know](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/25\/well\/cold-flu-covid-symptoms.html).\n- **Heart Problems:** One study found that a Covid infection [doubled the risk of a major cardiovascular event for up to three years afterward](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/22\/well\/covid-heart-health.html). And the risk of a heart attack [triples within the first few weeks](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/29\/well\/viral-infections-covid-flu-heart-attacks.html) after an infection, another suggested.\n- **Long Covid in Children:** People under 21 [are](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/09\/30\/health\/long-covid-children.html) [twice as likely to develop long-term health consequences](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/09\/30\/health\/long-covid-children.html) after a second coronavirus infection, a large study found.\n- **Covid Shots****:** The F.D.A. [approved updated Covid vaccines](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/27\/health\/fda-covid-vaccines-rfk-jr.html) and limited who can get the shots. Children [under 12 need different versions of the vaccines](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/07\/well\/covid-vaccine-children-parents-issues-rfk-jr.html), but many pharmacies and pediatricians’ offices aren’t stocking them. [Here's what to know](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/27\/well\/covid-vaccines-guidelines-fall-2025.html).\n- **Gut Issues:** Why does Covid cause [diarrhea, constipation, pain and bloating? Here are some suggestions for](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/12\/well\/eat\/covid-symptoms-diarrhea-constipation-pain-bloating.html) what to do about these conditions.\n\nA [buzzy paper](https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41591-022-02051-3) that was published in Nature Medicine last fall showed that people with two or more Covid infections were more than three times as likely to develop lung and heart issues, and over 1.5 times as likely to have a neurological disorder, including brain fog and strokes, than those who were only infected once. The study used data collected from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers, which meant the participants tended to be older than the general population, and overwhelmingly male. But it showed, in pretty stark terms, that multiple infections are worse than one, said one of its authors, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Healthcare System.\n\nDr. Sala said he frequently sees patients who were more or less fine after their first couple of infections wind up with long Covid in the wake of a third or fourth infection.\n\nHow we choose health experts to talk to. Times reporters often spend weeks interviewing doctors, researchers and other health professionals to help report an article. We seek leaders in their fields, watch out for conflicts of interest and try to get a variety of viewpoints.\n\n[Here’s more on our process.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/09\/16\/well\/how-health-reporters-choose-experts.html)\n\n“Just because you were lucky enough previously to not have more persistent symptoms, that’s not a reassurance you won’t the next time around,” he said.\n\nStill, it’s not a foregone conclusion that reinfection definitively raises the risk of long Covid, said Fikadu Tafesse, a virologist at Oregon Health & Science University. “Reinfection is very contentious,” he said. “Literally depending on which paper you are reading, there’s contradicting information regarding that. So I don’t know what to believe.”\n\n## Editors’ Picks\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/03\/t-magazine\/03tmag-kit-slide-GROH\/03tmag-kit-slide-GROH-thumbLarge-v2.jpg)Tools a Hairstylist Can’t Be Without](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/t-magazine\/jawara-hairstylist-essential-tools.html)\n\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/08\/multimedia\/08sp-design-products\/08sp-design-products-thumbLarge-v2.jpg)6 Design Products That May Be the Last of Their Kind](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/03\/style\/design-traditional-crafts.html)\n\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/03\/multimedia\/29CUL-LOOKING-FORWARD-BRIDE-pmcq\/29CUL-LOOKING-FORWARD-BRIDE-pmcq-thumbLarge-v2.jpg)The Many Brides of Frankenstein](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/04\/movies\/bride-frankenstein-maggie-gyllenhaal.html)\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html#after-pp_edpick)\n\nDr. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that the overall risk of developing long Covid is still low, and it’s far lower now than it was at the start of the pandemic, when infections tended to be more severe.\n\nReinfection can worsen symptoms in people who already have long Covid, said Dr. Chin-Hong. Other people with long Covid may not see a change in their symptoms.\n\n## OK, so now what?\nIt’s easy to feel a sense of fatalism about reinfection, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego. But he stressed that you can reduce your risk with common-sense measures like eating dinner outside while the weather’s warm and not hanging out with friends when they’re feeling sick.\n\nStill, there’s a lot beyond our control. “You want to not get it if you can, but I’m not sure I would live in a bubble to try and not get it,” Dr. Chin-Hong said.\n\nHe also noted that there are ways to lower the risk of long-term complications from Covid: An [updated vaccine](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/covid-booster-fall.html), which can help buffer against reinfection, will be available this fall, and antivirals like Paxlovid may [reduce the risk](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/07\/health\/paxlovid-long-covid.html) of developing long Covid.\n\nDr. Chin-Hong said that he walks around with a mask in his pocket, but wouldn’t pull out of a trip or avoid hugging a friend he ran into out of concerns about the virus. “I just do the best that I can,” he said. “But I’m not fearful.”\n\n[Dani Blum](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/dani-blum) is a reporter for Well.\n\nRead 781 comments\n\n- Share full article\n- 781\n\n## Related Content\n### [More in Live](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/well)\n- [What Can You Do About Tinnitus?](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/29\/well\/live\/tinnitus-treatment-options.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/06\/well\/29ASKWELL-TINNITUS2\/29ASKWELL-TINNITUS2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Eric Helgas for The New York Times\n- [A Longevity Expert’s 5 Tips for Aging Well](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/06\/well\/live\/eric-topol-longevity-tips.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/13\/well\/06WELL-TOPOL-LONGEVITY\/06WELL-TOPOL-LONGEVITY-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Sonia Pulido\n- [What’s the Best Way to Wake Up?](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/06\/well\/live\/healthy-morning-habits.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/13\/multimedia\/06ASKWELL-WAKING-UP1-hmgk\/06ASKWELL-WAKING-UP1-hmgk-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Eric Helgas for The New York Times\n- [New Guidelines Call on Doctors to Take IUD Insertion Pain Seriously](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/15\/well\/live\/guidelines-iud-insertion-pain-management.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/20\/well\/WELL-ACOG-IUD3\/WELL-ACOG-IUD3-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Getty Images\n\n### Editors’ Picks\n- [Why Are We Spending So Much Money on Home Renovations?](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/realestate\/why-are-we-spending-so-much-money-on-home-renovations.html)\n  \n  ![Renovating a kitchen this year will likely cost between \\$20,000 to \\$75,000, according to research by the remodeling platform Houzz.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/08\/travel\/05re-calculator\/05re-calculator-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images\n- [Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s Wedding Slip Dress Inspires a New Generation](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/style\/carolyn-bessette-kennedy-wedding-slip-dress.html)\n  \n  ![Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. at their private wedding ceremony on Sept. 21, 1996. Her understated slip dress would go on to become one of the most influential bridal looks of the era — and now.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06ST-CAROLYN-BESSETTE-WED-STYLE-top-mvcq\/06ST-CAROLYN-BESSETTE-WED-STYLE-top-mvcq-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Denis Reggie\n\n### Trending in The Times\n- [And Givenchy Created Woman](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/07\/style\/givenchy-sarah-burton-fall-2026.html)\n  \n  ![Showing a different kind of skin at Givenchy by Sarah Burton.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/07\/multimedia\/07ST-RWREVIEW-GIVENCHY-01-mwqt\/07ST-RWREVIEW-GIVENCHY-01-mwqt-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Indigital.Tv\n- [Kristi Noem Survived Many Crises. Then She Crossed a Trump Red Line.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-noem.html)\n  \n  ![Kristi Noem testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, where her comments led the president to fire her later in the week.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc\/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Tierney L. Cross\/The New York Times\n- [From 1977: Maria Callas, 53, Is Dead of Heart Attack in Paris](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/arts\/music\/maria-callas-dead.html)\n  \n  ![Maria Callas in the 2017 documentary “Maria By Callas,” directed by Tom Volf.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/17\/multimedia\/17WHM-Callas-Obit-01-mhjw\/17WHM-Callas-Obit-01-mhjw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Sony Pictures Classics\n- [Superfood Fuels Mating Frenzy for a Critically Endangered Parrot](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/science\/kakapo-endangered-parrots-mating-berries.html)\n  \n  ![A kakapo with eggs on Anchor Island, in New Zealand. The island is known for lacking the kinds of predators that threaten the parrots. ](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05xp-kakapos-gtpm\/05xp-kakapos-gtpm-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Andrew Digby\/Dept. of Conservation, New Zealand, via Associated Press\n- [\\$550,000 Homes in Kentucky, Florida and Maryland](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/04\/realestate\/florida-maryland-kentucky-home-sales.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/realestate\/04re-wyg-Louisville\/04re-wyg-Louisville-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Amanda Shae Home Team Realty Group\n- [A New Media Empire](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/04\/podcasts\/the-daily\/paramount-netflix-warner-bros.html)\n  \n  ![The merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery has left Hollywood in a state of shock.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/04DAILY-paramount-wb-hkgw\/04DAILY-paramount-wb-hkgw-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York Times\n- [Britain Arrests a Lawmaker’s Husband on Suspicion of Spying for China](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/04\/world\/europe\/uk-spying-china-arrests.html)\n  \n  ![A Chinese embassy building in London in November. Chinese spying has been a sensitive topic in Britain recently. ](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/04int-uk-china-spies-mjlb\/04int-uk-china-spies-mjlb-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Justin Tallis\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n- [Is This Treadmill Walking Trend Good for Your Fitness?](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/well\/move\/12-3-30-treadmill-workout-trend.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/well\/06WELL-TREADMILL-TREND2\/06WELL-TREADMILL-TREND2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Getty Images\n- [What Satellite Images Show on Efforts to Destroy Iran’s Ballistic Missiles](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/03\/us\/politics\/iran-ballistic-missiles-strikes-maps.html)\n  \n  ![A building at a missile facility near Isfahan appears to be severely 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Experts are still unsure about how damaging they can be.\n\n![An illustration of a Covid-19 virus particle with bent red arrows around the circle pointing to red dice that stand in for the spike proteins.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/08\/16\/opinion\/16WELL-COVID-REINFECTION\/16WELL-COVID-REINFECTION-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nCredit...Matt Chase\n\nAug. 17, 2023\n\nDoctors and scientists who study Covid-19 agree that for most people, getting infected for a second — or third or fourth — time is basically inevitable. The longer the virus sticks around, the [more common](https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/72\/wr\/mm7225a3.htm) repeat infections have and will become, especially in light of the [summer uptick](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/08\/well\/live\/covid-summer-surge.html) and a new [dominant variant](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/11\/well\/live\/covid-variant-eris-eg5.html).\n\nThere is no risk-free Covid infection. But researchers are trying to untangle just how damaging repeated infections might be — whether symptoms tend to become more or less severe from one bout to the next, and whether one’s risk of developing long Covid increases after multiple illnesses.\n\nThere is a dearth of data on Covid outcomes, including what proportion of people with repeat infections go on to develop longer-term complications, said Dr. Marc Sala, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center. But here’s what we know so far.\n\n## The severity of repeat infections\nFor many people who get Covid multiple times, subsequent infections will be as mild as or milder than their first, [emerging](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2023.06.29.23292043v1.full.pdf) [data](https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC9961977\/) shows, likely because of partial immunity from previous infections, vaccination and the fact that the latest circulating variants generally cause less severe symptoms. There are a few exceptions — notably, among some people who are immunocompromised, older or had particularly severe previous infections. People who had a severe first infection are more likely to end up hospitalized or to require medical attention for a reinfection, said Emily Hadley, a research data scientist at RTI International who studies long Covid.\n\n## Reinfection and long Covid\nThe chances you will get long Covid from a reinfection are fairly unpredictable — several experts interviewed for this story used the metaphor of Russian roulette. The milder your symptoms, the less likely you are to get long Covid, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. But every time you get infected, no matter the severity, there is always a chance that you can develop longer-term symptoms.\n\nA [buzzy paper](https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41591-022-02051-3) that was published in Nature Medicine last fall showed that people with two or more Covid infections were more than three times as likely to develop lung and heart issues, and over 1.5 times as likely to have a neurological disorder, including brain fog and strokes, than those who were only infected once. The study used data collected from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers, which meant the participants tended to be older than the general population, and overwhelmingly male. But it showed, in pretty stark terms, that multiple infections are worse than one, said one of its authors, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Healthcare System.\n\nDr. Sala said he frequently sees patients who were more or less fine after their first couple of infections wind up with long Covid in the wake of a third or fourth infection.\n\nHow we choose health experts to talk to. Times reporters often spend weeks interviewing doctors, researchers and other health professionals to help report an article. We seek leaders in their fields, watch out for conflicts of interest and try to get a variety of viewpoints.\n\n“Just because you were lucky enough previously to not have more persistent symptoms, that’s not a reassurance you won’t the next time around,” he said.\n\nStill, it’s not a foregone conclusion that reinfection definitively raises the risk of long Covid, said Fikadu Tafesse, a virologist at Oregon Health & Science University. “Reinfection is very contentious,” he said. “Literally depending on which paper you are reading, there’s contradicting information regarding that. So I don’t know what to believe.”\n\nDr. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that the overall risk of developing long Covid is still low, and it’s far lower now than it was at the start of the pandemic, when infections tended to be more severe.\n\nReinfection can worsen symptoms in people who already have long Covid, said Dr. Chin-Hong. Other people with long Covid may not see a change in their symptoms.\n\n## OK, so now what?\nIt’s easy to feel a sense of fatalism about reinfection, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego. But he stressed that you can reduce your risk with common-sense measures like eating dinner outside while the weather’s warm and not hanging out with friends when they’re feeling sick.\n\nStill, there’s a lot beyond our control. “You want to not get it if you can, but I’m not sure I would live in a bubble to try and not get it,” Dr. Chin-Hong said.\n\nHe also noted that there are ways to lower the risk of long-term complications from Covid: An [updated vaccine](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/covid-booster-fall.html), which can help buffer against reinfection, will be available this fall, and antivirals like Paxlovid may [reduce the risk](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/07\/health\/paxlovid-long-covid.html) of developing long Covid.\n\nDr. Chin-Hong said that he walks around with a mask in his pocket, but wouldn’t pull out of a trip or avoid hugging a friend he ran into out of concerns about the virus. “I just do the best that I can,” he said. “But I’m not fearful.”\n\n## Related Content\n[More in Live](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/well)\n\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/06\/well\/29ASKWELL-TINNITUS2\/29ASKWELL-TINNITUS2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Eric Helgas for The New York Times\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/13\/well\/06WELL-TOPOL-LONGEVITY\/06WELL-TOPOL-LONGEVITY-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Sonia Pulido\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/13\/multimedia\/06ASKWELL-WAKING-UP1-hmgk\/06ASKWELL-WAKING-UP1-hmgk-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Eric Helgas for The New York Times\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/20\/well\/WELL-ACOG-IUD3\/WELL-ACOG-IUD3-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Getty Images\n\nEditors’ Picks\n\n- ![Renovating a kitchen this year will likely cost between \\$20,000 to \\$75,000, according to research by the remodeling platform Houzz.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/08\/travel\/05re-calculator\/05re-calculator-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images\n- ![Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. at their private wedding ceremony on Sept. 21, 1996. Her understated slip dress would go on to become one of the most influential bridal looks of the era — and now.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06ST-CAROLYN-BESSETTE-WED-STYLE-top-mvcq\/06ST-CAROLYN-BESSETTE-WED-STYLE-top-mvcq-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Denis Reggie\n\nTrending in The Times\n\n- ![Showing a different kind of skin at Givenchy by Sarah Burton.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/07\/multimedia\/07ST-RWREVIEW-GIVENCHY-01-mwqt\/07ST-RWREVIEW-GIVENCHY-01-mwqt-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Indigital.Tv\n- ![Kristi Noem testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, where her comments led the president to fire her later in the week.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc\/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Tierney L. Cross\/The New York Times\n- ![Maria Callas in the 2017 documentary “Maria By Callas,” directed by Tom Volf.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/17\/multimedia\/17WHM-Callas-Obit-01-mhjw\/17WHM-Callas-Obit-01-mhjw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Sony Pictures Classics\n- ![A kakapo with eggs on Anchor Island, in New Zealand. The island is known for lacking the kinds of predators that threaten the parrots. ](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05xp-kakapos-gtpm\/05xp-kakapos-gtpm-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Andrew Digby\/Dept. of Conservation, New Zealand, via Associated Press\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/realestate\/04re-wyg-Louisville\/04re-wyg-Louisville-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Amanda Shae Home Team Realty Group\n- ![The merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery has left Hollywood in a state of shock.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/04DAILY-paramount-wb-hkgw\/04DAILY-paramount-wb-hkgw-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York Times\n- ![A Chinese embassy building in London in November. Chinese spying has been a sensitive topic in Britain recently. ](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/04int-uk-china-spies-mjlb\/04int-uk-china-spies-mjlb-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Justin Tallis\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/well\/06WELL-TREADMILL-TREND2\/06WELL-TREADMILL-TREND2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Getty Images\n- ![A building at a missile facility near Isfahan appears to be severely damaged.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/03\/multimedia\/2026-03-02-iran-ballistic-missiles-missile-sites-struck\/2026-03-02-iran-ballistic-missiles-missile-sites-struck-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  The New York Times\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/arts\/Tornado-Thumb2\/Tornado-Thumb2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Lindsey Whitaker\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/well\/live\/covid-reinfection.html#after-bottom)","meta_canonical":null}

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Boilerpipe Text	Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Reinfections are becoming more common. Experts are still unsure about how damaging they can be. Credit... Matt Chase Aug. 17, 2023 Doctors and scientists who study Covid-19 agree that for most people, getting infected for a second — or third or fourth — time is basically inevitable. The longer the virus sticks around, the more common repeat infections have and will become, especially in light of the summer uptick and a new dominant variant . There is no risk-free Covid infection. But researchers are trying to untangle just how damaging repeated infections might be — whether symptoms tend to become more or less severe from one bout to the next, and whether one’s risk of developing long Covid increases after multiple illnesses. There is a dearth of data on Covid outcomes, including what proportion of people with repeat infections go on to develop longer-term complications, said Dr. Marc Sala, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center. But here’s what we know so far. The severity of repeat infections For many people who get Covid multiple times, subsequent infections will be as mild as or milder than their first, emerging data shows, likely because of partial immunity from previous infections, vaccination and the fact that the latest circulating variants generally cause less severe symptoms. There are a few exceptions — notably, among some people who are immunocompromised, older or had particularly severe previous infections. People who had a severe first infection are more likely to end up hospitalized or to require medical attention for a reinfection, said Emily Hadley, a research data scientist at RTI International who studies long Covid. Reinfection and long Covid The chances you will get long Covid from a reinfection are fairly unpredictable — several experts interviewed for this story used the metaphor of Russian roulette. The milder your symptoms, the less likely you are to get long Covid, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. But every time you get infected, no matter the severity, there is always a chance that you can develop longer-term symptoms. A buzzy paper that was published in Nature Medicine last fall showed that people with two or more Covid infections were more than three times as likely to develop lung and heart issues, and over 1.5 times as likely to have a neurological disorder, including brain fog and strokes, than those who were only infected once. The study used data collected from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers, which meant the participants tended to be older than the general population, and overwhelmingly male. But it showed, in pretty stark terms, that multiple infections are worse than one, said one of its authors, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Healthcare System. Dr. Sala said he frequently sees patients who were more or less fine after their first couple of infections wind up with long Covid in the wake of a third or fourth infection. How we choose health experts to talk to. Times reporters often spend weeks interviewing doctors, researchers and other health professionals to help report an article. We seek leaders in their fields, watch out for conflicts of interest and try to get a variety of viewpoints. “Just because you were lucky enough previously to not have more persistent symptoms, that’s not a reassurance you won’t the next time around,” he said. Still, it’s not a foregone conclusion that reinfection definitively raises the risk of long Covid, said Fikadu Tafesse, a virologist at Oregon Health & Science University. “Reinfection is very contentious,” he said. “Literally depending on which paper you are reading, there’s contradicting information regarding that. So I don’t know what to believe.” Dr. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that the overall risk of developing long Covid is still low, and it’s far lower now than it was at the start of the pandemic, when infections tended to be more severe. Reinfection can worsen symptoms in people who already have long Covid, said Dr. Chin-Hong. Other people with long Covid may not see a change in their symptoms. OK, so now what? It’s easy to feel a sense of fatalism about reinfection, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego. But he stressed that you can reduce your risk with common-sense measures like eating dinner outside while the weather’s warm and not hanging out with friends when they’re feeling sick. Still, there’s a lot beyond our control. “You want to not get it if you can, but I’m not sure I would live in a bubble to try and not get it,” Dr. Chin-Hong said. He also noted that there are ways to lower the risk of long-term complications from Covid: An updated vaccine , which can help buffer against reinfection, will be available this fall, and antivirals like Paxlovid may reduce the risk of developing long Covid. Dr. Chin-Hong said that he walks around with a mask in his pocket, but wouldn’t pull out of a trip or avoid hugging a friend he ran into out of concerns about the virus. “I just do the best that I can,” he said. “But I’m not fearful.” Related Content More in Live Eric Helgas for The New York Times Sonia Pulido Eric Helgas for The New York Times Getty Images Editors’ Picks Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Denis Reggie Trending in The Times Indigital.Tv Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Sony Pictures Classics Andrew Digby/Dept. of Conservation, New Zealand, via Associated Press Amanda Shae Home Team Realty Group Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York Times Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Getty Images The New York Times Lindsey Whitaker Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Markdown	[Skip to content](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html#site-index) Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation Search [Live](https://www.nytimes.com/section/well) [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2023%252F08%252F17%252Fwell%252Flive%252Fcovid-reinfection.html&asset=masthead) Saturday, March 7, 2026 [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) [Live](https://www.nytimes.com/section/well)\\|How Bad Is a Second (or Third or Fourth) Case of Covid? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html - Share full article - 781 Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html#after-top) Supported by [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html#after-sponsor) # How Bad Is a Second (or Third or Fourth) Case of Covid? Reinfections are becoming more common. Experts are still unsure about how damaging they can be. - Share full article - 781 ![An illustration of a Covid-19 virus particle with bent red arrows around the circle pointing to red dice that stand in for the spike proteins.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/08/16/opinion/16WELL-COVID-REINFECTION/16WELL-COVID-REINFECTION-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Credit...Matt Chase [![Dani Blum](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/03/17/reader-center/dani-blum/dani-blum-thumbLarge-v2.png)](https://www.nytimes.com/by/dani-blum) By [Dani Blum](https://www.nytimes.com/by/dani-blum) Aug. 17, 2023 [Leer en español](https://www.nytimes.com/es/2023/08/29/espanol/covid-reinfeccion.html "Read in Spanish") Doctors and scientists who study Covid-19 agree that for most people, getting infected for a second — or third or fourth — time is basically inevitable. The longer the virus sticks around, the [more common](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7225a3.htm) repeat infections have and will become, especially in light of the [summer uptick](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/well/live/covid-summer-surge.html) and a new [dominant variant](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/well/live/covid-variant-eris-eg5.html). There is no risk-free Covid infection. But researchers are trying to untangle just how damaging repeated infections might be — whether symptoms tend to become more or less severe from one bout to the next, and whether one’s risk of developing long Covid increases after multiple illnesses. There is a dearth of data on Covid outcomes, including what proportion of people with repeat infections go on to develop longer-term complications, said Dr. Marc Sala, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center. But here’s what we know so far. ## The severity of repeat infections For many people who get Covid multiple times, subsequent infections will be as mild as or milder than their first, [emerging](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.29.23292043v1.full.pdf) [data](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9961977/) shows, likely because of partial immunity from previous infections, vaccination and the fact that the latest circulating variants generally cause less severe symptoms. There are a few exceptions — notably, among some people who are immunocompromised, older or had particularly severe previous infections. People who had a severe first infection are more likely to end up hospitalized or to require medical attention for a reinfection, said Emily Hadley, a research data scientist at RTI International who studies long Covid. ## Reinfection and long Covid The chances you will get long Covid from a reinfection are fairly unpredictable — several experts interviewed for this story used the metaphor of Russian roulette. The milder your symptoms, the less likely you are to get long Covid, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. But every time you get infected, no matter the severity, there is always a chance that you can develop longer-term symptoms. ## More on the Virus - Is It Cold, Flu or Covid?: With similar symptoms, it can be difficult to tell which illness is which. [Here’s what to know](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/well/cold-flu-covid-symptoms.html). - Heart Problems: One study found that a Covid infection [doubled the risk of a major cardiovascular event for up to three years afterward](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/22/well/covid-heart-health.html). And the risk of a heart attack [triples within the first few weeks](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/well/viral-infections-covid-flu-heart-attacks.html) after an infection, another suggested. - Long Covid in Children: People under 21 [are](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/health/long-covid-children.html) [twice as likely to develop long-term health consequences](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/health/long-covid-children.html) after a second coronavirus infection, a large study found. - Covid Shots: The F.D.A. [approved updated Covid vaccines](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/health/fda-covid-vaccines-rfk-jr.html) and limited who can get the shots. Children [under 12 need different versions of the vaccines](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/well/covid-vaccine-children-parents-issues-rfk-jr.html), but many pharmacies and pediatricians’ offices aren’t stocking them. [Here's what to know](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/well/covid-vaccines-guidelines-fall-2025.html). - Gut Issues: Why does Covid cause [diarrhea, constipation, pain and bloating? Here are some suggestions for](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/well/eat/covid-symptoms-diarrhea-constipation-pain-bloating.html) what to do about these conditions. A [buzzy paper](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3) that was published in Nature Medicine last fall showed that people with two or more Covid infections were more than three times as likely to develop lung and heart issues, and over 1.5 times as likely to have a neurological disorder, including brain fog and strokes, than those who were only infected once. The study used data collected from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers, which meant the participants tended to be older than the general population, and overwhelmingly male. But it showed, in pretty stark terms, that multiple infections are worse than one, said one of its authors, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Healthcare System. Dr. Sala said he frequently sees patients who were more or less fine after their first couple of infections wind up with long Covid in the wake of a third or fourth infection. How we choose health experts to talk to. Times reporters often spend weeks interviewing doctors, researchers and other health professionals to help report an article. We seek leaders in their fields, watch out for conflicts of interest and try to get a variety of viewpoints. [Here’s more on our process.](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/well/how-health-reporters-choose-experts.html) “Just because you were lucky enough previously to not have more persistent symptoms, that’s not a reassurance you won’t the next time around,” he said. Still, it’s not a foregone conclusion that reinfection definitively raises the risk of long Covid, said Fikadu Tafesse, a virologist at Oregon Health & Science University. “Reinfection is very contentious,” he said. “Literally depending on which paper you are reading, there’s contradicting information regarding that. So I don’t know what to believe.” ## Editors’ Picks [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/03/t-magazine/03tmag-kit-slide-GROH/03tmag-kit-slide-GROH-thumbLarge-v2.jpg)Tools a Hairstylist Can’t Be Without](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/t-magazine/jawara-hairstylist-essential-tools.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/08/multimedia/08sp-design-products/08sp-design-products-thumbLarge-v2.jpg)6 Design Products That May Be the Last of Their Kind](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/style/design-traditional-crafts.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/01/03/multimedia/29CUL-LOOKING-FORWARD-BRIDE-pmcq/29CUL-LOOKING-FORWARD-BRIDE-pmcq-thumbLarge-v2.jpg)The Many Brides of Frankenstein](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/movies/bride-frankenstein-maggie-gyllenhaal.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html#after-pp_edpick) Dr. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that the overall risk of developing long Covid is still low, and it’s far lower now than it was at the start of the pandemic, when infections tended to be more severe. Reinfection can worsen symptoms in people who already have long Covid, said Dr. Chin-Hong. Other people with long Covid may not see a change in their symptoms. ## OK, so now what? It’s easy to feel a sense of fatalism about reinfection, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego. But he stressed that you can reduce your risk with common-sense measures like eating dinner outside while the weather’s warm and not hanging out with friends when they’re feeling sick. Still, there’s a lot beyond our control. “You want to not get it if you can, but I’m not sure I would live in a bubble to try and not get it,” Dr. Chin-Hong said. He also noted that there are ways to lower the risk of long-term complications from Covid: An [updated vaccine](https://www.nytimes.com/article/covid-booster-fall.html), which can help buffer against reinfection, will be available this fall, and antivirals like Paxlovid may [reduce the risk](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/07/health/paxlovid-long-covid.html) of developing long Covid. Dr. Chin-Hong said that he walks around with a mask in his pocket, but wouldn’t pull out of a trip or avoid hugging a friend he ran into out of concerns about the virus. “I just do the best that I can,” he said. “But I’m not fearful.” [Dani Blum](https://www.nytimes.com/by/dani-blum) is a reporter for Well. 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Readable Markdown	Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html#after-top) Reinfections are becoming more common. Experts are still unsure about how damaging they can be. ![An illustration of a Covid-19 virus particle with bent red arrows around the circle pointing to red dice that stand in for the spike proteins.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/08/16/opinion/16WELL-COVID-REINFECTION/16WELL-COVID-REINFECTION-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Credit...Matt Chase Aug. 17, 2023 Doctors and scientists who study Covid-19 agree that for most people, getting infected for a second — or third or fourth — time is basically inevitable. The longer the virus sticks around, the [more common](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7225a3.htm) repeat infections have and will become, especially in light of the [summer uptick](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/well/live/covid-summer-surge.html) and a new [dominant variant](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/well/live/covid-variant-eris-eg5.html). There is no risk-free Covid infection. But researchers are trying to untangle just how damaging repeated infections might be — whether symptoms tend to become more or less severe from one bout to the next, and whether one’s risk of developing long Covid increases after multiple illnesses. There is a dearth of data on Covid outcomes, including what proportion of people with repeat infections go on to develop longer-term complications, said Dr. Marc Sala, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center. But here’s what we know so far. ## The severity of repeat infections For many people who get Covid multiple times, subsequent infections will be as mild as or milder than their first, [emerging](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.29.23292043v1.full.pdf) [data](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9961977/) shows, likely because of partial immunity from previous infections, vaccination and the fact that the latest circulating variants generally cause less severe symptoms. There are a few exceptions — notably, among some people who are immunocompromised, older or had particularly severe previous infections. People who had a severe first infection are more likely to end up hospitalized or to require medical attention for a reinfection, said Emily Hadley, a research data scientist at RTI International who studies long Covid. ## Reinfection and long Covid The chances you will get long Covid from a reinfection are fairly unpredictable — several experts interviewed for this story used the metaphor of Russian roulette. The milder your symptoms, the less likely you are to get long Covid, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. But every time you get infected, no matter the severity, there is always a chance that you can develop longer-term symptoms. A [buzzy paper](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3) that was published in Nature Medicine last fall showed that people with two or more Covid infections were more than three times as likely to develop lung and heart issues, and over 1.5 times as likely to have a neurological disorder, including brain fog and strokes, than those who were only infected once. The study used data collected from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers, which meant the participants tended to be older than the general population, and overwhelmingly male. But it showed, in pretty stark terms, that multiple infections are worse than one, said one of its authors, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Healthcare System. Dr. Sala said he frequently sees patients who were more or less fine after their first couple of infections wind up with long Covid in the wake of a third or fourth infection. How we choose health experts to talk to. Times reporters often spend weeks interviewing doctors, researchers and other health professionals to help report an article. We seek leaders in their fields, watch out for conflicts of interest and try to get a variety of viewpoints. “Just because you were lucky enough previously to not have more persistent symptoms, that’s not a reassurance you won’t the next time around,” he said. Still, it’s not a foregone conclusion that reinfection definitively raises the risk of long Covid, said Fikadu Tafesse, a virologist at Oregon Health & Science University. “Reinfection is very contentious,” he said. “Literally depending on which paper you are reading, there’s contradicting information regarding that. So I don’t know what to believe.” Dr. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that the overall risk of developing long Covid is still low, and it’s far lower now than it was at the start of the pandemic, when infections tended to be more severe. Reinfection can worsen symptoms in people who already have long Covid, said Dr. Chin-Hong. Other people with long Covid may not see a change in their symptoms. ## OK, so now what? It’s easy to feel a sense of fatalism about reinfection, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego. But he stressed that you can reduce your risk with common-sense measures like eating dinner outside while the weather’s warm and not hanging out with friends when they’re feeling sick. Still, there’s a lot beyond our control. “You want to not get it if you can, but I’m not sure I would live in a bubble to try and not get it,” Dr. Chin-Hong said. He also noted that there are ways to lower the risk of long-term complications from Covid: An [updated vaccine](https://www.nytimes.com/article/covid-booster-fall.html), which can help buffer against reinfection, will be available this fall, and antivirals like Paxlovid may [reduce the risk](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/07/health/paxlovid-long-covid.html) of developing long Covid. Dr. Chin-Hong said that he walks around with a mask in his pocket, but wouldn’t pull out of a trip or avoid hugging a friend he ran into out of concerns about the virus. “I just do the best that I can,” he said. “But I’m not fearful.” ## Related Content [More in Live](https://www.nytimes.com/section/well) - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/05/06/well/29ASKWELL-TINNITUS2/29ASKWELL-TINNITUS2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Eric Helgas for The New York Times - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/05/13/well/06WELL-TOPOL-LONGEVITY/06WELL-TOPOL-LONGEVITY-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Sonia Pulido - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/05/13/multimedia/06ASKWELL-WAKING-UP1-hmgk/06ASKWELL-WAKING-UP1-hmgk-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Eric Helgas for The New York Times - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/05/20/well/WELL-ACOG-IUD3/WELL-ACOG-IUD3-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Getty Images Editors’ Picks - ![Renovating a kitchen this year will likely cost between \$20,000 to \$75,000, according to research by the remodeling platform Houzz.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/08/travel/05re-calculator/05re-calculator-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Justin Sullivan/Getty Images - ![Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. at their private wedding ceremony on Sept. 21, 1996. Her understated slip dress would go on to become one of the most influential bridal looks of the era — and now.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/06/multimedia/06ST-CAROLYN-BESSETTE-WED-STYLE-top-mvcq/06ST-CAROLYN-BESSETTE-WED-STYLE-top-mvcq-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Denis Reggie Trending in The Times - ![Showing a different kind of skin at Givenchy by Sarah Burton.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/07/multimedia/07ST-RWREVIEW-GIVENCHY-01-mwqt/07ST-RWREVIEW-GIVENCHY-01-mwqt-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Indigital.Tv - ![Kristi Noem testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, where her comments led the president to fire her later in the week.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/06/multimedia/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times - ![Maria Callas in the 2017 documentary “Maria By Callas,” directed by Tom Volf.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/17/multimedia/17WHM-Callas-Obit-01-mhjw/17WHM-Callas-Obit-01-mhjw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Sony Pictures Classics - ![A kakapo with eggs on Anchor Island, in New Zealand. The island is known for lacking the kinds of predators that threaten the parrots. ](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/05/multimedia/05xp-kakapos-gtpm/05xp-kakapos-gtpm-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Andrew Digby/Dept. of Conservation, New Zealand, via Associated Press - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/04/realestate/04re-wyg-Louisville/04re-wyg-Louisville-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Amanda Shae Home Team Realty Group - ![The merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery has left Hollywood in a state of shock.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/04/multimedia/04DAILY-paramount-wb-hkgw/04DAILY-paramount-wb-hkgw-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York Times - ![A Chinese embassy building in London in November. Chinese spying has been a sensitive topic in Britain recently. ](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/04/multimedia/04int-uk-china-spies-mjlb/04int-uk-china-spies-mjlb-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/06/well/06WELL-TREADMILL-TREND2/06WELL-TREADMILL-TREND2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Getty Images - ![A building at a missile facility near Isfahan appears to be severely damaged.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/03/multimedia/2026-03-02-iran-ballistic-missiles-missile-sites-struck/2026-03-02-iran-ballistic-missiles-missile-sites-struck-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) The New York Times - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/06/arts/Tornado-Thumb2/Tornado-Thumb2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Lindsey Whitaker Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/well/live/covid-reinfection.html#after-bottom)
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