The Claim:
An anti-vaccine cat lover retweets study findings and claims that immunity from a past COVID infection protects as well as vaccination against severe illness and death.
The Facts:
Although this claim is accurate, gambling on immunity via COVID infection isn’t worth the risks. The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, compared the immunity conferred by prior infection to that conferred by two doses of mRNA vaccine. Findings suggest that immunity from prior infection may be as protective as immunity from two doses of mRNA vaccine for variants up to and including the initial Omicron lineages.
However, there are other important factors the tweet doesn’t mention. First, the risk of death from COVID is far higher for unvaccinated people than for those who receive the vaccine. In order to get prior infection protection, you risk the potentially deadly consequences of facing COVID unvaccinated.
Second, this study’s scope was limited. It looked at the protection offered from two doses of mRNA vaccine but did not look at booster doses or address the issue of waning immunity. Both infection- and vaccine-induced immunity protection weakens over time. Booster doses provide needed protection against waning immunity.
Disclaimer: Science is always evolving and our understanding of these topics may have evolved too since this was originally posted. Be sure to check out our most recent posts and browse the latest Just the Facts Topics for the latest.
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