Coronavirus: Thread

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https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/natural-immunity-better-than-protection-from-covid-19-vaccination-study-5534822

Natural Immunity Better Than Protection From COVID-19 Vaccination: Study

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People with protection against COVID-19 following recovery from the
illness were better protected than those who received a COVID-19
vaccine, according to a new study.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (purple) infected
with a variant strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (pink), isolated
from a patient sample. (NIAID via The Epoch Times)

People who received a vaccine were nearly five times as likely as the
naturally immune to test positive for COVID-19 during the Delta era
and 1.1 times as likely to test positive for COVID-19 during the
Omicron era, researchers in Estonia found.

The vaccinated were also seven times as likely to be admitted to a
hospital for COVID-19 amid the spread of the Delta variant and two
times as likely to be admitted to a hospital during the Omicron
period, when compared with the naturally immune, the researchers
found.

"Our study showed that natural immunity offers stronger and
longer-lasting protection against infection, symptoms, and
hospitalization compared to vaccine-induced immunity," Dr. Anneli
Uusküla, with the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at
the University of Tartu, and her co-authors wrote.

Previous studies have also found that post-infection immunity is
superior to or similar to the protection bestowed by vaccines.

Dr. Uusküla and her colleagues said they felt there were gaps in the
literature on the subject, prompting them to work on the study.

They drew from a pool of 329,496 adults and matched many of the adults
in three cohorts. One compared people with natural immunity to those
who received a vaccine; one compared the naturally immune to people
who did not have documented prior infection or vaccination; and one
compared the naturally immune to people with hybrid immunity, or both
prior infection and vaccination.

People were defined as vaccinated if they had received a full primary
series of a COVID-19 vaccine and did not have a documented infection.

The primary outcome was laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 occurring at any
time for people without any immunity, after 60 days of recovery from a
prior infection for the naturally immune, at least 14 days after
completion of a vaccine for the vaccinated group, and at least 14 days
after vaccination or 60 days after recovery for people with hybrid
immunity.

The second outcome, hospitalization, was defined as hospitalization
with COVID-19 and with certain medical codes.

Researchers utilized national health care records and examined data
from between Feb. 26, 2020 and Feb. 23, 2022. The Delta era ended in
December 2021.

In the cohort comparing the naturally immune to people without prior
immunity or vaccination, researchers found that the naturally immune
were much better protected against hospitalization, used as a measure
of protection against severe disease.

"During both periods, natural immunity proved to be highly effective
in protecting against reinfections progressing to severe disease and
was associated with a significantly lower risk of COVID
hospitalization than no SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity," the researchers
said.

But they also discovered that the naturally immune, while much less
likely to be infected during the Delta era, were actually more likely
to test positive during the Omicron era.

In the comparison of the naturally immune to people with hybrid
immunity, the researchers determined those with hybrid immunity were
better protected against infection during the Delta era, but they were
at slightly higher risk during the Omicron period. In the hybrid
immunity group, just one COVID-19 hospitalization was recorded,
compared to nine among the naturally immune.

"Irrespective of the infection-causing variant, the protective effect
of hybrid immunity in preventing infection progression to severe
COVID-19 significantly exceeded that of natural immunity (although the
absolute numbers of hospitalizations in the hybrid immunity subcohort
were small)," the authors said.

Limitations included some people being admitted to hospitals with
COVID-19 but not for it, though researchers tried minimizing the issue
by only including hospitalizations with codes indicating patients had
respiratory disease.

The research was funded by the European Regional Development Fund,
Estonian Research Council, and European Social Fund.

Authors declared no competing interest.