[Lewis Thomson (OP)]

Philippa would like to find answers for this question.

"My husband has Covid but I seem to have avoided it ( both have 3 doses of vaccine). I presume virus tried to get into my body but was repelled by vaccine/ antibodies/ T cells? I’ve read that a past infection trains your body, so that when you’ve had vaccines they work pretty well. What I wondered was whether an “ attempted infection” or repeated exposure to the virus, or whatever you call it, has any beneficial effect? Thanks, you are all doing a great job!"

Leave your help in the comments below...

[set fair]

There can be an advantage in that your immunity gets boosted but only if the virus doesn't kill you, cause permenant dammage to your lungs, heart or kidneys or give you long covid.

Basically what you're hoping for is that if you catch covid, it won't be so bad um when you er catch Covid.

[evan_au]

Since it now seems impossible to avoid Omicron, and it appears fairly mild, a useful strategy would seem to be:
- Get 2 vaccines + booster
- Wait 2 weeks for the booster to take effect
- Then relax mask-wearing a bit, so you are exposed to Omicron maybe once per week, keeping your immune system on the lookout for Omicron.

Unfortunately, this is not quite the ideal way of dealing with Delta, which is less infectious but more deadly. You could try:
- Get 2 vaccines + booster
- Wait 2 weeks for the booster to take effect
Then there is a choice:
a) Relax mask-wearing a bit, so you are exposed to Delta maybe once per week, keeping your immune system on the lookout for Delta.
b) Keep mask-wearing so you aren't exposed to Delta, minimizing the chance you will catch Delta, with possible lung damage.

Unfortunately, your best strategy is affected by what everyone else around you is doing, so it's not entirely your decision..
- I think that in most "Western" countries, they will be strenuously avoiding future lockdowns, so you will be exposed to Omicron now, and Delta in future
- In most "Western" countries (except Red states in the USA), the goal is to encourage as many people as possible to be vaccinated + booster, which will provide good protection against Delta, and reduce the spread of Delta

...But future variants a a new roll of the genetic dice!