Should You Get A Vaccine If You've Already Recovered From COVID?

The U.S. has been rolling out COVID vaccines to its population for just over a month now. As of today, 16.5 million doses have been administered -- 9 million from Pfizer (PFE -0.33%) and its partner BioNTech (BNTX -0.50%) and 7 million from Moderna (MRNA -0.71%). Both mRNA vaccines have demonstrated exceptionally high efficacy and are hugely important tools in combatting the coronavirus pandemic. 

Considering more than 24 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, it's natural to ask: "If I already had COVID, do I still need a vaccine?" You do, and here's why: