I got 4th right before an intl trip and wanted to take advantage of the initial high protection from infection. I have yet to get the virus to my knowledge so I'll probably keep boosting.
I find it hard to believe that anyone hasn’t had it due to how viruses work. Vaccines inherently require infection to work. If the virus never enters your respiratory system then the shot has no opportunity to work. Instead vaccines prevent symptoms by reducing the viral load. However, like HIV, herpes, chicken pox, etc. people who have been infected generally carry the virus for life and can continue to spread it for life depend on their current viral load. Odds are that you have caught a couple strains of post-2018 COVID, even if you’ve never been sick.
> Odds are that you have caught a couple strains of post-2018 COVID, even if you’ve never been sick.
We didn't have a case until intentionally opening border restrictions once vaccines had been distributed, and once we did we were masking long after people forgot about them in the US, so my window to get infected has been quite a bit shorter than most. I don't think I would have been exposed to Delta or earlier dominant strains at all, but it's true I could have had a silent Omicron infection.
Asymptomatic infection is kind of a moot point though because it isn't going to generate the robust immune response of a 'real' infection, my point being since I don't have the well rounded immunity conferred by infection + vaccination I have plenty to gain from continuing to boost (not that infection obviates the need for boosters to maintain immunity after a few months).
Btw, no, you do not hang on to persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection and spread it for life unless you are severely immunocompromised.
