During the latest coronavirus outbreak in the United States, driven by the Delta variant, people who were not vaccinated but survived Covid-19 were more protected than those who were vaccinated and uninfected previously, indicated a new study this Wednesday (19).
The finding is the latest to weigh on the debate over the relative strengths of natural versus vaccine-acquired immunity against SARS-CoV-2, but this time it comes with the support of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The authors of the article cautioned, however, against relying on infection as a strategy, due to the greater risk for hospitalization, long-term impacts, and death, compared to the vaccinated.
“Viruses are constantly changing,” the CDC noted in a statement. “The level of protection offered by vaccination and survival from a previous infection changed during the study period. The vaccine remains the safest strategy to protect against Covid-19,” he added.
The analysis was also performed before the emergence of the Ômicron variant, for which both vaccine-derived and infection-derived immunity appear to be lower, and before booster doses were widely available.
The study involved patients in New York and California between May 30 and November 30, 2021.
In the week of October 3, case rates among people vaccinated without having contracted the disease before were about six times lower in California and five times lower in New York, compared to those who were not vaccinated or had covid before.
But rates were substantially lower among people who had already had covid: 29 times (California) and 15 times smaller (New Y ork) among previously diagnosed unvaccinated people, compared to those who had not received the vaccine and no previous infection.
The highest protection occurred among those who had both vaccination and previous covid. Hospitalizations followed a similar pattern.
“Further studies are needed to establish the duration of protection from previous infections by variant type, severity and symptomatology, including for the ômicron variant,” concluded the report. article.
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