Your questions, answered How many times can a person in their 60s be infected with Coronavirus after taking both shots of the vaccine and a booster shot? —Vanitha, Bloomington, Ill. The short answer, unfortunately, is that the number of times a vaccinated and boosted person can get infected is probably limitless. There are two main factors at play. The first is that SARS-CoV2, the virus that triggered the current pandemic, is constantly evolving and some of those changes are giving it the ability evade immunity from vaccines and boosters as well as previous natural infection. We are currently in the midst of another wave of illness from new versions of omicron, which have a key change in part of the spike protein that locks into our cells, that Science magazine recently dubbed "masters of immune evasion." The other issue is that immunity from the virus is suspected to last only a limited amount of time. This is why public health officials recommended a booster for all Americans and a fourth shot for those who are immunocompromised or older. "Like most things in medicine it's never black and white and there are so many subtleties," said Thomas Moore, a clinical professor at medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine Wichita campus. "People can and do get reinfected even if they do everything right." A number of scientific groups are working on a universal coronavirus vaccine that they hope will be able to prevent against all existing strains of SARS-CoV-2 as well as anything that comes up in the future. In the meantime, Moore emphasized that there is overwhelming evidence that getting the vaccine and booster when recommended remains the best defense in preventing serious illness or death. "I think the lesson here is to keep your immunity against the virus current and wear a mask in public," Moore said. | 
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