The protection provided against COVID-19 by natural immunity has been largely (and conspicuously) ignored by U.S. public health officials and Democratic politicians.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not backed off their incessant demand that every U.S. citizen be vaccinated, the agency made an astonishing admission in the latest edition of their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
CDC case and hospitalization data collected in California and New York from May-November 2021 showed that those with past COVID infection fared better against the Delta variant than those who had merely been vaccinated.
The caveat: Those with prior infection who had also been vaccinated fared best of all.
The report states: “Before Delta became the predominant variant in June, case rates were higher among persons who survived a previous infection than persons who were vaccinated alone. By early October, persons who survived a previous infection had lower case rates than persons who were vaccinated alone.”
The CDC’s Dr. Ben Silk, an author of this study, told reporters on Wednesday: “Before the Delta variant, COVID-19 vaccination resulted in better protection against a subsequent infection than surviving a previous infection” as was the case with the Alpha variant.”
However, once Delta became the predominant variant, he said, “surviving a previous infection now provided greater protection against the subsequent infection than vaccination.”
That said, Dr. Silk concluded that “the evidence in this report does not change our vaccination recommendations.”
Of course not.
“We know that vaccination is still the safest way to protect yourself against COVID-19,” he said.
Dr. Silk was quick to point out the risks involved with acquiring immunity through natural infection. During the period of this study, approximately 130,781 California and New York residents died from COVID.
(It would be interesting to find out how many of those individuals died “with” COVID, rather than “from” COVID.)
As far as implications for public health practice, the CDC states:
Although the epidemiology of COVID-19 might change as new variants emerge, vaccination remains the safest strategy for averting future SARS-CoV-2 infections, hospitalizations, long-term sequelae, and death. Primary vaccination, additional doses, and booster doses are recommended for all eligible persons. Additional future recommendations for vaccine doses might be warranted as the virus and immunity levels change.
Reuters reported that the CDC study “did not include information on the severity of initial infection, nor does it account for the full range of illness caused by prior infection.” Nor did it consider those who had been boosted.
In an email to Reuters, Dr. Erica Pan, state epidemiologist for the California Department of Public Health, echoed Dr. Silk’s conclusion. Even for those with prior infections, the study “clearly shows” that vaccines provide the safest protection against COVID-19.
She said, “Outside of this study, recent data on the highly contagious Omicron variant shows that getting a booster provides significant additional protection against infection, hospitalization and death.”
I’d like to see that data, because the evidence suggests that vaccine status is irrelevant when it comes to Omicron variant, which now accounts for 99.5 percent of all COVID cases in the U.S.
Two weeks ago, nine people I knew tested positive for COVID. At no time during the pandemic had so many family members and friends been infected with the virus at the same time. Except for my two-year-old granddaughter, these individuals had all been vaccinated and three had been boosted.
One of those who’d been boosted, a 71-year-old man, experienced moderate symptoms, but did not require hospitalization. The rest experienced mild symptoms.
Given last week’s report of concern among officials at the European Medicines Agency (the EU’s equivalent of the FDA) and even the World Health Organization about possible risks to the immune system from the boosters, and the Israeli study that showed the effects of a second booster were nearly nil against Omicron, there’s a case to made for waiting.
Readers?
Follow AFNN
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/afnnusa
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/2_-GAz…
Twitter: @AFNNUSA
GETTR: @AFNN_USA
CloutHub: @AFNN_USA
Patriot.Online: @AFNN
Please follow me on Twitter.
1 thought on “CDC Admits that Natural Immunity Provided Superior Protection Against Delta Variant Than Vaccines”