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Like many New Yorkers, Domenica D’Ottavio contracted COVID-19 over the Christmas holidays. Her head clogged with congestion, her body ached; she coughed and spiked a fever.

But she also had another surprising symptom: relief.

“It was just a different feeling,” said D’Ottavio, who had been fully vaccinated and boosted before getting infected. “You don’t realize until it’s over that you’ve been walking around with a tiny bit of fear in the back of your mind.”

While some doctors and immunologists agree that hybrid immunity offers an additional layer of defense against the virus, they urge caution, noting that the strength of that protection can vary by individual and may wane over time.

“It’s the best immunity you can get,” said Shane Crotty, a virus expert at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology in California. “But I wouldn’t think of hybrid immunity as being a force field that can completely stop it no matter what.”

Experts also caution against trying to get infected on purpose as a way to gain hybrid immunity. “I really worry that people will intentionally get infected so they can get to this ‘new normal,’” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York. The virus is unpredictable, and even young people can become very sick.