If you already had COVID-19 , you might be wondering if you should plan to get vaccinated.

Doctors are still looking into how long immunity from natural infection with the coronavirus lasts, but the current thinking is that antibody levels begin to drop after a few months particularly in asymptomatic and milder cases eventually leaving people susceptible to catching the virus a second time.

Though this particular issue needs more research, health experts suspect that people with a recent COVID-19 infection may be able to hold off a few months before getting the vaccine. Those who have been recovered from COVID-19 for several months, however, should plan to get the shot as soon as it becomes available to them.

Heres why, along with some other information you need to know:

Youre probably protected for a few months after a COVID-19 infection.

Onyema Ogbuagu , an infectious disease doctor at Yale Medicine who has been testing the Pfizer vaccine, believes people who were recently infected probably dont need to get the shot right away.

Studies have found that neutralizing antibodies produced by natural infections last, at the very least, for a few months. In cases of reinfection , the second illness typically doesnt occur until three to four months after the first.

Its pretty certain, although you can never say confidently, that in the first few months after infection ... the risk of reinfection is really low, Ogbuagu said.

If you had COVID-19 several months ago, however, that might be a different story.

Its generally believed that natural immunity from COVID-19 drops after a few months , though evidence has been mixed . We also know that antibody levels from other common coronaviruses wane rapidly, and the same could be true with COVID-19, according to Otto Yang , a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases and of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

People probably will become re-infectable based on antibodies dropping when people have been naturally infected. We dont know what the timing is going to be, though, like how soon they become susceptible to reinfection, Yang said.

Ogbuagu said he would recommend the vaccine for someone who had COVID-19 three to four months ago (or longer), especially if it was a milder case. Evidence suggests that those who had a more serious go of it may emerge with more durable protection that could last for several months .

Researchers currently suspect that immunity conferred by the vaccine will be more robust than immunity achieved from natural disease. This theory is still being tested, Ogbuagu said, and regardless of whether you had a mild or severe case, youll want to get the shot at some point.