{"id":547955,"date":"2026-03-27T06:44:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T06:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/547955\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T06:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T06:44:31","slug":"getting-covid-again-is-more-dangerous-than-most-people-realize-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/547955\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting COVID Again Is More Dangerous Than Most People Realize\u2014Here\u2019s What To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pandemic days of hoarding toilet paper and celebrating birthdays over Zoom seem like a lifetime ago. While in many ways, life has long felt \u201cback to normal,\u201d it\u2019s important to acknowledge the millions of people whose lives were forever impacted by COVID<\/a>. Many lost loved ones to the virus, creating an emptiness that is still very much felt.<\/p>\n

While the rates of people being severely impacted by COVID have gone down drastically since the dawn of the pandemic, it\u2019s important to still take the virus seriously. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>, COVID was associated with an estimated 290,000 to 450,000 hospitalizations and between 34,000 and 53,000 deaths between July 2024 and July 2025, the most recent year that data is available. These stats show just how much the virus is still impacting us.<\/p>\n

Related: Doctors Are Seeing a Bizarre New COVID Symptom Right Now<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID is still circulating and continues to cause illness, especially during seasonal surges,\u201d says Dr. Edmarie Guzm\u00e1n-V\u00e9lez, PhD,<\/a> a core member of the Center for Healthy Aging Research at Rutgers Institute of Health and who specializes in long COVID<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Something else that you might not know is that getting re-infected with COVID can impact your health more than you may realize. If you\u2019ve had COVID at least once already, it\u2019s important to understand how getting it again can affect you. We talked to doctors about what they want everyone to know about getting COVID again, including why it can be dangerous.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\ude7a<\/a>SIGN UP for tips to stay healthy & fit with the top moves, clean eats, health trends & more delivered right to your inbox twice a week<\/a>\ud83d\udc8a<\/a><\/p>\n

\"oatawa\"How Getting COVID Numerous Times Impacts Health<\/p>\n

At this point, six years after the start of the pandemic, it isn\u2019t unusual for people to have gotten re-infected with COVID. You might know people who have contracted the virus three or four times. While many people may think it\u2019s not a big deal to get COVID these days, doctors we talked to said that getting COVID numerous times is dangerous.<\/p>\n

According to a study published in Nature Medicine<\/a>, each COVID re-infection increases the risk of developing chronic health conditions, including diabetes<\/a>, kidney disease<\/a>, organ failure and mental health problems. Dr. Guzm\u00e1n-V\u00e9lez says that it also increases the risk of getting long COVID<\/a>, which is when symptoms related to contracting the COVID virus last more than three months. These symptoms can include respiratory problems (like shortness of breath or coughing), cognitive issues (like brain fog or memory problems), fatigue, dizziness and loss of taste and smell, among other symptoms.<\/p>\n

Related: Subtle But Scary Symptoms of Long COVID That You Seriously Shouldn’t Ignore<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEach COVID-19 infection is a new stress on the body. Repeated infections may increase the risk of long COVID by cumulatively affecting the immune system<\/a>, inflammation<\/a> and organ systems. In addition, each infection carries its own independent risk of triggering long COVID, so the more times someone is infected, the greater the overall chance of developing persistent symptoms,\u201d Dr. Guzm\u00e1n-V\u00e9lez says.<\/p>\n

What makes getting long COVID especially dangerous is that there is currently no cure for it. Because of this, Dr. Guzm\u00e1n-V\u00e9lez explains that long COVID treatment is centered around managing symptoms and improving quality of life. \u201cThis may include approaches such as physical rehabilitation, sleep management, mental health support and treatment of specific symptoms like pain or shortness of breath,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Related: The Surprising COVID Vaccine Side Effect No One’s Talking About<\/a><\/p>\n

How To Decrease Your Risk of Long COVID<\/p>\n

Certainly, no one wants to suffer from long COVID symptoms indefinitely, but it\u2019s challenging to avoid ever coming into contact with the COVID virus, especially if your job involves being around other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to avoid long COVID is to prevent a severe COVID infection in the first place, and the best way to do that is by getting vaccinated every year,\u201d says Dr. Brian Labus, PhD, MPH,<\/a> an epidemiologist, infectious disease expert and public health professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

While you shouldn\u2019t live your life in fear of being social, both doctors emphasize the importance of getting the COVID vaccine<\/a> annually. Dr. Labus stresses that only getting the initial COVID vaccine is not enough for long-term protection. \u201cIf you haven’t been vaccinated since the vaccine was first introduced, you have a lot less protection than someone who gets vaccinated every year. Staying up to date on your COVID vaccines is the best way to protect yourself from long COVID because the vaccine works really well to prevent severe disease and having severe disease is the greatest risk factor for developing long COVID,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

If you think you may have long COVID, talk to your healthcare provider. That way, they can run tests to check for other possible causes for your symptoms as well as discuss ways to manage your symptoms. As Dr. Guzm\u00e1n-V\u00e9lez explained before, while there is no cure for long COVID (at least not yet), there are many solutions for managing symptoms.<\/p>\n

While you shouldn\u2019t live your life in fear of COVID, it\u2019s important to still take the virus seriously and stay up to date with the COVID vaccine. In this case, the best offense is a good defense.<\/p>\n

Up Next:<\/p>\n

Related: What Vaccines Do You Need in March if You\u2019re Over 50? Doctors Explain<\/a><\/p>\n

Sources<\/p>\n

Dr. Edmarie Guzm\u00e1n-V\u00e9lez, PhD,<\/a> a clinical neuropsychologist, neuroscientist and core member of the Center for Healthy Aging Research at Rutgers Institute of Health<\/p>\n

Wesley Ely, E., Brown, L.M., Fineberg, H.V., et al. (2024). Long COVID Defined.<\/a> The New England Journal of Medicine. 391:1746-1753<\/p>\n

Dr. Brian Labus, PhD, MPH,<\/a> epidemiologist, infectious disease expert and public health professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Mar 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the Health & Wellness<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pandemic days of hoarding toilet paper and celebrating birthdays over Zoom seem like a lifetime ago. While…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[20734,244243,97,7541],"class_list":["post-547955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-covid","tag-edmarie-guzman-velez","tag-health","tag-long-covid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}