The protection a person develops after recovering from COVID-19 shields people against infection as the Omicron virus variant has become dominant in the United States, according to a new study.
The defense, known as natural immunity, was similar to the protection seen among the naturally immune who got at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and people who got three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and didn’t have natural immunity, researchers with the Cleveland Clinic found. Further, those who had received a primary series of a vaccine and didn’t get a booster, or additional shot, were the most likely to become infected.
“During the time when the Omicron variant was the predominant strain causing infection, prior COVID-19 provided effective protection against infection for at least 6 months even in the absence of vaccination,” Dr. Nabin Shrestha, the lead author and an infectious disease physician, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
Shrestha and colleagues analyzed records of Cleveland Clinic employees, many of whom have received at least two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines but some of whom remain unvaccinated. For their analysis, in an effort to ensure accurate data on prior infection and vaccination, they only included employees who were employed since at least Dec. 16, 2020.
Natural immunity did appear to begin waning around six months following infection when researchers stratified the cases by time since prior infection. Naturally immune employees became more likely to test positive after six months, but the risk dropped if they received at least one dose of a vaccine after recovery. The vaccinated also saw an improvement in protection if they received a booster dose, or a third shot.
Curiously, though, the analysis found that people who recovered from COVID-19 were actually most at-risk of contracting the illness again if they had gotten two shots—even more than the unvaccinated. Among the naturally immune, three shots protected better than not getting any vaccine, but a single shot protected the best, the findings indicate. Researchers are unsure of why this would be the case, and are encouraging other scientists to check on this in future studies.
“For those who had had prior infection with COVID-19, vaccinating with more than one dose of vaccine provided no advantage over a single dose of vaccine in protecting against the Omicron variant,” Shrestha said.
“Effectively, prior infection should be considered at least as protective in protecting against future infection as two doses of an mRNA vaccine. This is not to say that it is better to get infected than to get vaccinated. However, if someone did get infected and survived, the protection they have acquired from natural infection should be acknowledged.”
The Pfizer and Moderna shots are built on messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology.
Limitations of the study included a sole focus on all COVID-19 infections, due to an inability to acquire complete data regarding hospitalizations and symptomatic infections.
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