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Natural Immunity Against COVID? Study Says It’s Better Than The Vaccine

by CrownHeights.info

Reports from across the country tell of overrun hospitals and overflowing ICU’s. So why does Crown Heights and New York City seems to little infection  spread or hospital admissions from the COVID-19 Delta variant? The answer might be natural immunity.

A new study published in Israel found an interesting phenomenon as post vaccination cases of COVID-19 spiked in the country where more than 70% of the population is vaccinated.

The study, a retrospective observational study conducted by Maccabi Healthcare Services, Tel Aviv University, and Ashdod University Hospital, compared Israelis from three groups: people who had received vaccine and were never infected with COVID-19, people who were previously infected and did not receive the vaccine, and people who were infected with COVID-19 and were then vaccinated after recovering.

In the study, researchers discovered that natural immunity appears to be stronger and longer-lasting than vaccination alone, and also noted that a single-dose of vaccine likely can offer additional protection from the Delta Variant to those who recovered from COVID-19.

This study is a major piece of growing evidence that despite declining antibodies post a natural COVID infection, other forms of natural body immunity remain present long after recovering from an infection.

The large study, which included a wide variety of over 32,000 people, found that being vaccinated with a single dose of the vaccine after recovering from a COVID-19 infection cut the risk of reinfection nearly in half, with the previously infected and vaccinated group having just a 0.53 risk factor compared to the post infection, but unvaccinated group.

The authors concluded that when studying the effects of the Delta Variant, “natural immunity affords longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity.”

But, they added, a single dose of the vaccine appears to boost the protection enjoyed by the previously infected.

“Notably, individuals who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and given a single dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine gained additional protection against the Delta variant. The long-term protection provided by a third dose, recently administered in Israel, is still unknown.”

According to Israel’s Channel 13, the data presented to the Health Ministry in July found that the vaccinated were 6.72 times more likely than the previously infected to be diagnosed with the virus, though no distinction was made between vaccinated patients who were previously uninfected or previously infected, nor were comorbidities accounted for.

A previous study, conducted in Cleveland, Ohio, had previously found that there is likely little to no benefit for recovered SARS-CoV-2 patients in receiving vaccines against the coronavirus.

So why would New York City, and Crown Heights in particular have little spread of the virus? The answer might be natural immunity.

New York City was one of the first major cities to see widespread of the virus, long before a COVID-19 vaccine was available. In Crown Heights it could be seen even more as a major part of the community was exposed and infected with COVID-19 during the first wave, and before social distancing and masking came into effect.

So as devastating as a the first wave of COVID-19 was, it may now be affording protection that those who solely took the vaccine may not have.

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