While it has become a fact that vaccines have performed drastically worse during the Omicron era, a recent meta-analysis accounting for dozens of studies reveals that natural immunity offers better protection against reinfection, symptomatic infections, and severe disease from all COVID-19 variants than all the COVID vaccines. In addition, natural immunity offered the advantage of reducing viral rebound compared with full vaccination.
Natural Immunity Performs Better Against All Variants
Vaccines belong to a group of drugs called prophylactics, meaning that they are meant to prevent disease. However, that classification is not limited to vaccines but also refers to medication, regular health screenings, and when it comes to reinfection, a previous infection.For a virus like SARS‑CoV‑2 that would inevitably become endemic or as seasonal as the flu, a vaccine with a specific immunogen as a core component could never provide long-term protection, given that the virus is very likely to mutate.
