FDNY's Top Doctor Tells Workers: Get Vaccinated Even If You Had Virus

Fire Department Chief Medical Officer David Prezant, who has spent his career documenting the ravages of the occupational diseases that Firefighters and Emergency Medical Service workers contract, is urging them to set aside any skepticism they feel about the coronavirus vaccine and take it even if they have already survived the virus.

"We have consulted with several experts in COVID vaccination—scientists and physicians that have actually done the trials—and they have all said unanimously that if you have had the illness, you should be vaccinated," he said in an extended interview Dec. 8. "The reason for that is because the illness does not seem in all people to create permanent immunity. It seems to create antibodies that disappear over time...the vaccine can boost that antibody response and hopefully lead to a much-longer-lasting response."