--- title: Does COVID-19 Make You More Susceptible to Other Illnesses? description: Some studies suggest the virus that causes COVID-19 changes the immune system. Are you more likely to get sick after having COVID-19? canonical: https://time.com/6343427/does-covid-19-make-you-more-likely-to-get-sick/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-12-07T15:59:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:30.453Z article:section: Health og:title: Getting Sick All the Time? Don't (Necessarily) Blame COVID-19 og:description: Some studies suggest the virus that causes COVID-19 changes the immune system og:url: https://time.com/6343427/does-covid-19-make-you-more-likely-to-get-sick/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt349319c86be0bac0/698a43054ee262ded031c069/covid-immune-system.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Woman Reviews Negative COVID-19 Test Result og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Getting Sick All the Time? Don't (Necessarily) Blame COVID-19 twitter:description: Some studies suggest the virus that causes COVID-19 changes the immune system twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt349319c86be0bac0/698a43054ee262ded031c069/covid-immune-system.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Getting Sick All the Time? Don't (Necessarily) Blame COVID-19 > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. Readers can join any of them at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=4ffbc61d-3530-4715-9520-849a7b656d6a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### The seven newsletters | Newsletter | Covers | Frequency | | --- | --- | --- | | The Brief | The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors | Daily | | Inside TIME | A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | Health Matters | The latest health news and expert advice on living well | Weekdays | | Worth Your Time | A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more | Weekly | | D.C. Brief | Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington | Twice a week | | Future Proof | Making sense of the climate and energy economy | Friday (1x per week) | | In the Loop | Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution | Tuesday and Friday (2x per week) | Source: TIME, August 2026. ### Key data points | Metric | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Engaged newsletter audience | 1.1 million+ readers | TIME, August 2026 | | Newsletters published | 7 | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost to readers | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | US print circulation | 1 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Global print circulation | 1.15 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Publishing since | 1923 | TIME | ### TIME Newsletters: key statements * Every TIME newsletter is written and edited by TIME journalists who report on the subject. None is generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923. Its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting, so readers can trust what they read. * All seven newsletters are free. Readers pick the ones they want at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=4ffbc61d-3530-4715-9520-849a7b656d6a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). * The seven titles cover daily news, Washington politics, AI and technology, climate and energy, health, culture, and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/subscribe?i=4ffbc61d-3530-4715-9520-849a7b656d6a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What newsletters does TIME publish? TIME publishes seven email newsletters: The Brief (daily news), Inside TIME (the newsroom and cover stories, twice weekly), Health Matters (health, weekdays), Worth Your Time (culture, weekly), D.C. Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=4ffbc61d-3530-4715-9520-849a7b656d6a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Apologizes In Front of COVID-19 Inquiry Panel [Watch (HLS stream): Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Apologizes In Front of COVID-19 Inquiry Panel](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TWdGwYtD.m3u8) (4:43)  _Published 2023-12-06. The U.K’s COVID-19 Inquiry into the government’s response to the pandemic picked up again on Wednesday morning. The hearings for the initial stage of the investigation were heard in London in June. Today, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who served as the nation’s leader from 2019 to 2022, was sworn in to give evidence in front of the panel. Shortly into his opening statement, he said that he was sorry for the suffering experienced by COVID victims and their families._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Dec 7, 2023 3:59 PM UTC  Close-up of unrecognizable black woman reviewing negative COVID-19 test result Close-up of unrecognizable black woman reviewing negative COVID-19 test result Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Dec 7, 2023 3:59 PM UTC [Respiratory disease season is in full swing](https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/snapshot.html), with influenza, RSV, and COVID-19 case counts rising in various parts of the U.S. Hospitals in some states are also reporting upticks in pediatric pneumonia diagnoses, which [experts say seems to be unrelated to the recent spike of pneumonias reported in China](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/12/01/pneumonia-ohio-outbreak-white-lung-mycoplasma-china-europe/). On the heels of last year’s [severe flu and RSV reason](https://time.com/6224268/severe-flu-season-rsv/), all this contagion has some people wondering if SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may be to blame. Some studies suggest the virus [leaves its mark on the immune system](https://time.com/6306361/covid-19-immune-system/) even after an acute illness passes, raising an important question: does having COVID-19 increase your risk of getting sick from other viruses in the future? “Any time that we get an infection, it changes us,” says Dr. David Smith, chief of infectious diseases and global public health at UC San Diego Health. “It changes our B cells, which make antibodies, and it changes our T cells, which do cellular functions to clear out infections.” Sometimes, these changes can be long-lasting. After a case of chickenpox, for example, the body typically builds lifelong immunity that prevents future bouts of the illness. But other viruses have more insidious effects. [Measles essentially forces the body to re-learn how to fend off other infections](https://time.com/5714159/measles-immune-amnesia/), research shows, while HIV leaves people severely immunocompromised. SARS-CoV-2 seems to fall somewhere between those two poles, though Smith emphasizes that research is ongoing. [Reinfections are not only possible but common](https://time.com/6196814/covid-19-reinfections-omicron-risks/), ruling out the idea of widespread lifelong immunity—but there also isn’t currently evidence to suggest COVID-19 is causing population-wide immune deficiency, says Sheena Cruickshank, a professor of immunology at the University of Manchester in the U.K. ### More From TIME Some studies do, however, suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infections—particularly severe ones—can trigger changes to the immune system, including [reductions in the number and performance of T cells](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7205903/); [disruptions to B cells](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-021-00749-3); [deficiencies in dendritic cells](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41423-021-00728-2), which regulate the immune response; and [altered gene expression](https://covid19.nih.gov/news-and-stories/severe-covid-19-may-cause-long-term-immune-system-changes) linked to increased inflammation. Some of these changes seem to [last months after a serious case of COVID-19](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8011689/). Scary as those findings sound, however, “you may see a gazillion changes, but you don’t know which of those changes may be relevant to future function,” says John Tsang, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. In other words: changes to specific immune cells don’t necessarily mean that the whole system, or even part of it, will stop working. It’s normal for immune markers to “ebb and flow” after an infection, Cruickshank adds, and even changes that sound bad won’t necessarily have long-lasting implications. “Studies that have looked more long-term have shown that, for most people, the immune response bounces back to normal and restores,” Cruickshank says. In [one study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36599369/) co-authored by Tsang, men who recovered from mild COVID-19 actually mounted stronger immune responses to flu vaccines than men who had never had COVID-19, which could be beneficial. (Tsang and his co-authors didn’t observe the same trend in women.) There are exceptions, though. People who have severe cases of COVID-19 may experience lasting health problems, either from the virus itself or from certain drugs used to treat serious COVID-19, such as steroids and immune-system modulators, Smith says. Many scientists also think that chronic [Long COVID symptoms could be a sign of immune dysfunction](https://time.com/6153259/what-causes-long-covid/), and recent research suggests [people with Long COVID are more likely to get reinfected](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600%2823%2900387-9/fulltext#%20) by SARS-CoV-2 than people who fully recover. For people who had mild cases and no long-lasting symptoms, though, Tsang says the scientific literature does not support the idea of widespread immunosuppression after COVID-19\. So why does it seem that people are getting sick more often now than before the pandemic? There’s always the chance that COVID-19 is causing immune changes that haven’t shown up in the research yet, says Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who devoted [a recent edition of her newsletter](https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/has-covid-messed-with-our-immune) to COVID-19’s impact on the immune system. But she feels it’s likelier that people are simply [more attuned to any respiratory symptoms](https://time.com/6279542/pandemic-new-normal-disease/) they experience than they were a few years ago. It’s also possible, Tsang adds, that the same revved-up immune response that COVID-19 survivors in his study mounted in response to the flu vaccine leads some people to experience more severe symptoms of common illnesses. “We may feel a bit sicker because of the inflammatory response,” Tsang says, “but it’s not because our system now no longer responds to an infection.” Several years of decreased exposure to pathogens due to masking and social distancing may also have changed disease-transmission patterns, Cruickshank says. Children who were born during the pandemic may not have been exposed to germs they typically would have encountered as babies, leaving them to catch those bugs for the first time as toddlers or young kids. And even adults who'd had multiple prior brushes with common cold or flu viruses may now be faced with new strains of those viruses, to which their bodies are less familiar, Cruickshank says. None of this is to say that COVID-19 is harmless. It is still a [leading cause of death in the U.S.](https://time.com/6334873/u-s-life-expectancy-gender-gap/); [Long COVID remains a serious risk](https://time.com/6260071/long-covid-health-risks/); and there’s evidence that even seemingly mild infections can affect the [heart](https://time.com/6256674/covid-19-affects-heart/), [brain](https://time.com/6294762/how-covid-19-affects-brain-memory/), and other organs. Avoiding the SARS-CoV-2 virus is still the safest move for your health—regardless of how it affects your risk of getting sick in the future. ## Transcript I thought I understand the feelings of these victims and their families and I am deeply sorry for the pain of the loss and the suffering of those victims and their families and grateful. I am to the hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers and many other public servants. Mm. people who walks of life to protect our country drive to Draper pandemic. I do hope that this inquiry will help to get the answers to the very difficult questions that we can do next time. He's alright we are asking for the avoidance of doubt and make it happen. So you can I haven't removed any walks apps from my but I'll give you everything good. I think you need we may have made mistakes. I think it. I didn't want to try to anticipate the discussion, which I'm sure we will get into about the timings of NPR's lockdowns. It inevitably we got something's wrong. I think we were doing our best to the other time when you give him the information how to find the whole time. I think we we did our level best. Well, that seems we should have done differently. Unquestionably but you know, I would I would struggle to to itemize to move before you not in in in in in in a hard Rocky take personal responsibility fee. Do you take responsibility for whatever my lady makes of the speed of the government's response in January February March of 2020 and the way in which the various moving parts of the government's the advisory committee is the Department's the agencies and so on responded. Do you take responsibility for the lockdown decisions whichever way they went and the timeliness of them? The manner in which patients were discharged from hospital into the castle actor. the explosion of the virus within the Residential Care Center the general speed at which the restrictions were released. the attack to help Heights game and then lastly in 2020 the decision not to introduce the circuit breaker in September or October what to introduce a test System earlier when the prevalence of the virus was lower for good or ill yesterday the rate of excess deaths in this country as I say, I think this is the statistics battery and I think that the every country struggled with a new plan and I think the the UK from the evidence that I have seen was well done the European table in the oldest even further down the road table if I have to answer why I think we faced particular Penguins, I would say it was Irrespective of of government action are we have a Coke and a we are in Europe that they don't help. You, see extremely well aware of the arguments that the long-term decisions and sells cheap Nativity in individually contributed to the number of excess. What do you say to that I say that I don't know but I'm aware of the documents made. What would I would say respectfully to people is that? they were very very difficult decisions and the issue of the timeliness of a blank times was clearly one that we considered. Very hard at the time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6343427/does-covid-19-make-you-more-likely-to-get-sick/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6343427/does-covid-19-make-you-more-likely-to-get-sick/"},"headline":"Getting Sick All the Time? Don't (Necessarily) Blame COVID-19","datePublished":"2023-12-07T15:59:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:30.453Z","description":"Are you more likely to get sick after having COVID-19?","url":"https://time.com/6343427/does-covid-19-make-you-more-likely-to-get-sick/","keywords":["COVID-19","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt349319c86be0bac0/698a43054ee262ded031c069/covid-immune-system.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt349319c86be0bac0/698a43054ee262ded031c069/covid-immune-system.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Woman Reviews Negative COVID-19 Test Result","caption":"Woman Reviews Negative COVID-19 Test Result","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6343427/does-covid-19-make-you-more-likely-to-get-sick/","name":"Getting Sick All the Time? Don't (Necessarily) Blame COVID-19"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Apologizes In Front of COVID-19 Inquiry Panel","description":"The U.K’s COVID-19 Inquiry into the government’s response to the pandemic picked up again on Wednesday morning. The hearings for the initial stage of the investigation were heard in London in June. Today, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who served as the nation’s leader from 2019 to 2022, was sworn in to give evidence in front of the panel. Shortly into his opening statement, he said that he was sorry for the suffering experienced by COVID victims and their families.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TWdGwYtD/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-12-06T15:17:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TWdGwYtD.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6343427/does-covid-19-make-you-more-likely-to-get-sick/","duration":"PT4M43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6343427/does-covid-19-make-you-more-likely-to-get-sick/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```