Natural immunity provides 'at least as high, if not higher' protection against COVID as mRNA vaccine, study reveals

Natural immunity provides "at least as high, if not higher" levels of protection against COVID-19 as two doses of an mRNA vaccine, according to a study published in The Lancet – one of the oldest and most respected medical journals in the world.

The research analyzed 65 studies from 19 different countries to determine the level of protection from past infection against "subsequent re-infection, symptomatic COVID-19 disease, and severe disease."

The study noted, "Our meta-analyses showed that protection from past infection and any symptomatic disease was high for ancestral, alpha, beta, and delta variants, but was substantially lower for the omicron BA.1 variant."

"Although protection from re-infection from all variants wanes over time, our analysis of the available data suggests that the level of protection afforded by previous infection is at least as high, if not higher than that provided by two-dose vaccination using high-quality mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech)," the authors of the study wrote.

"Furthermore, although protection from past infection wanes over time, the level of protection against re-infection, symptomatic disease, and severe disease appears to be at least as durable, if not more so, than that provided by two-dose vaccination with the mRNA vaccines for ancestral, alpha, delta, and omicron BA.1 variants, which is also seen from studies directly comparing natural immunity to vaccine-induced protection," the authors said.

"Protection from past infection against re-infection from pre-omicron variants was very high and remained high even after 40 weeks," the study found, adding that natural immunity diminished the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by 88% for at least 10 months.

The authors added that there were "risks of severe morbidity and mortality associated with the initial infection."

Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and senior study author, stated, "This is really good news, in the sense that protection against severe disease and death after infection is really quite sustained at 10 months."

"There's quite a long sustained protection against severe disease and death, almost 90% at 10 months," Murray said. "It is much better than I had expected, and that's a good thing for the world, right? Given that most of the world has had omicron. It means there's an awful lot of immunity out there."

Murray added, "The safest way to get immunity is vaccination."

The study advised, "The immunity conferred by past infection should be weighed alongside protection from vaccination when assessing future disease burden from COVID-19, providing guidance on when individuals should be vaccinated, and designing policies that mandate vaccination for workers or restrict access, on the basis of immune status, to settings where the risk of transmission is high, such as travel and high-occupancy indoor settings."

In May 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, "The issue of vaccines actually, at least with regard to SARS-CoV-2, can do better than nature."

The next month, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) slammed Fauci and the CDC for not admitting the benefits of natural immunity.

"One of the biggest scandals during this whole pandemic is the coverup that's been committed by Dr. Fauci and the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] — especially the CDC — about the effectiveness of immunity that's conferred after a natural infection, after you've recovered from [COVID], they've completely ignored that," Massie declared. "They want everybody to get vaccinated, even those who don't need [to be] vaccinated."

According to the CDC, only 16% of Americans are vaccinated with a COVID-19 booster shot.

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