A previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 vaccination can provide immunity and protection against future illness.
A new study has compared the level of immunity afforded by a previous infection with the protection provided by a COVID-19 vaccine.
The results suggest that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are around five times more effective at preventing hospitalization than a previous infection.
Numerous uncertainties and conflicting information continue to circulate around SARS-CoV-2 immunity. One commonly asked question is, “If I have had COVID-19, do I still need to receive a vaccine?”
A recent Source from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has attempted to address the issue of vaccine-induced versus infection-induced immunity.
Researchers from CDC’s VISION network gathered data from 187 hospitals across nine states. These were New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, and Colorado.
The study method
There were over 200,000 admissions to these hospitals between January and September 2021 for COVID-19-like illnesses.
The study recruited people who were 18 years and older and who had been tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection previously, at least 2 weeks before their admission to the hospital and again around the time of admission. All participants had either been fully vaccinated 3–6 months earlier or had a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection 3–6 months prior.
An analysis of the data showed that 7,348 people, or a little over 3% of the participants, met these study criteria.
Among these people, 1,020 had previously had the infection and were unvaccinated, while 6,328 were fully vaccinated individuals who had not had the infection previously.
Next, the researchers looked for people within these groups who had a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection through a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. This tool, also called a molecular test, detects the genetic material of the virus in the body.
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COVID-19: Do vaccines protect better than infection-induced immunity?
Written by Leigh Ann Green on November 5, 2021 — Fact checked by Harriet Pike, Ph.D.
A healthcare professional tends to a person in the COVID-19 unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, TX, on July 2, 2020. MARK FELIX/Getty Images
A previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 vaccination can provide immunity and protection against future illness.
A new study has compared the level of immunity afforded by a previous infection with the protection provided by a COVID-19 vaccine.
The results suggest that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are around five times more effective at preventing hospitalization than a previous infection.
Numerous uncertainties and conflicting information continue to circulate around SARS-CoV-2 immunity. One commonly asked question is, “If I have had COVID-19, do I still need to receive a vaccine?”
A recent study Trusted Source from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has attempted to address the issue of vaccine-induced versus infection-induced immunity.
Researchers from CDC’s VISION network gathered data from 187 hospitals across nine states. These were New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, and Colorado.
The study method
There were over 200,000 admissions to these hospitals between January and September 2021 for COVID-19-like illnesses.
The study recruited people who were 18 years and older and who had been tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection previously, at least 2 weeks before their admission to the hospital and again around the time of admission. All participants had either been fully vaccinated 3–6 months earlier or had a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection 3–6 months prior.
An analysis of the data showed that 7,348 people, or a little over 3% of the participants, met these study criteria.
Among these people, 1,020 had previously had the infection and were unvaccinated, while 6,328 were fully vaccinated individuals who had not had the infection previously.
Next, the researchers looked for people within these groups who had a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection through a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. This tool, also called a molecular test, detects the genetic material of the virus in the body.
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What the team found
Among the 6,328 people who were fully vaccinated, 324 (or 5.1%) had a positive COVID-19 PCR test. Among the 1,020 who were unvaccinated and who had previously had the infection, 89 (or 8.7%) had a positive COVID-19 PCR test.
According to the study authors, “These findings suggest that among hospitalized adults with COVID-19-like illness whose previous infection or vaccination occurred 90–179 days earlier, vaccine-induced immunity was more protective than infection-induced immunity against laboratory-confirmed COVID-19.”
Dr. William Shaffer, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN, commented on the study during an interview with Medical News Today.
He said: “For a long time, we’ve known that people [who have the infection], if they are subsequently vaccinated, will have much higher levels of antibodies than people who [have the infection] but are not vaccinated. Natural infection plus vaccination is better than natural infection alone.”
The study authors refer to a recent Israeli study that reported conflicting results. The Israeli study found that “natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease, and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 [than] the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity.”
The VISION researchers say that this variation may be related to differences in the methods of the two studies and restrictions on the timing of vaccinations.
They also explain that the Israeli study “only examined vaccinations that had occurred 6 months earlier,” whereas the recent study recruited anyone who had received their vaccine 3–6 months previously.
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