INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — It’s a topic that is dividing the nation: What’s better, vaccination or natural immunity?
“Natural immunity works when the virus doesn’t evolve … when you don’t have a new variant that can evade natural immunity that you may have developed the first time around,” Dr. Graham Carlos, chief of internal medicine at Eskenazi Health, told News 8. “One of the reasons why vaccines have been so important is because they have been shown to be protective against these new variants such as the delta variant, which is by far the most prevalent variant now.”
However, a recent study by scientists in Israel suggests it’s the opposite. Researchers assessed tens of thousands of people. Results showed people who were previously infected with COVID-19 showed longer and stronger protection against the virus compared to those who received the two-dose Pfizer vaccine regimen.
Vaccinated people, they found during the study period from May 2020 to August 2021, were at six times the risk for a breakthrough infection and at seven times the risk of infection compared to those previously infected. This data held up even when the delta variant entered the country.
To date, there have been no studies conducted in the United States comparing the effectiveness of natural immunity to the vaccines.
Source: www.wishtv.com/news/study-shows-natural-immunity-is-7-times-more-protective-than-pfizer-vaccine/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=undefined_WISH-TV