People Who Received Immunity Against Covid Through Vaccination are 13 Times More Likely to Get Reinfected Than Those With Natural Immunity, Study Finds

There is growing evidence that natural immunity against Covid-19 after infection is much more superior to immunity obtained by vaccines, including research that shows people who were vaccinated against Covid-19 were 13 times more likely to get reinfected compared to those with natural immunity.

The mounting evidence of the strength of natural immunity comes by way of multiple peer-reviewed studies conducted during the early months of the pandemic, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The studies show that people infected during the first waves were around 80 percent less likely to test positive during the next surge. Those studies spanned healthcare workers in the U.K., the Danish population and patients at the Cleveland Clinic, a large health system with facilities mostly in Ohio and Florida, WSJ reported.

Though evidence continues to be strong for the case that vaccination is the surest way to prevent against severe illness, the studies' results have huge implications for how governments pursue vaccine mandates, with discussions around whether persons who had a previous Covid-19 infection need a full course of a Covid-19 vaccine. Also being debated in the U.S. is whether documented prior infection should count as proof of immunity as is already the case in most of Europe and many other countries.

According to WSJ, a recent Israeli study found that people who had been vaccinated with two shots of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine were 13 times more likely to later get infected than those with a prior infection. The study, which hasn’t been peer reviewed, tracked confirmed infections between June and August this year for people who had been either vaccinated or infected in January or February, according to the report.

The study also found that immunity from infection lasts longer than that obtained from vaccination.

David Dowdy, associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told WSJ that the protective benefit of the Israel study could have been exaggerated, arguing that vaccinated people were more likely to travel abroad and bring the virus back home to their vaccinated family members.

But the increasing body of data building the case for natural immunity has been coming from around the world, including the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics, which found that between May and August, immunity from a prior infection offered around the same level of protection against the Delta variant as those vaccinated with the vaccines developed by either Pfizer or AstraZeneca.