More On the Superiority of Natural Immunity to Covid By Brian Simpson
Studies continue to confirm the superiority of natural immunity over the Covid vaccines. The only real counter I have seen, to be discussed in another article is “long Covid,” that there are problems further down the track. Apart from that by way of summary: “In the largest real-world observational study, conducted in Israel — one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world — scientists followed 700,000 people, splitting them into three groups: vaccinated people who received two doses of the Pfizer jab, unvaccinated people who recovered from COVID, and individuals who both recovered from the virus and received one dose the Pfizer vaccine. The study found natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization. “The researchers hypothesize that it’s because of B and T cell memory.”
“A bombshell new study shows natural immunity to COVID provides 13 times more protection against the Delta variant versus vaccination alone.
But as political commentator Kim Iverson points out on The Hill’s “Rising,” these new findings aren’t really “bombshell” at all.
Conventional science, she says, has always shown that past infection provides “robust immunity” against future reinfections.
“Why suddenly, after over 100 years of recognizing previous infection as a robust form of immunity,” Iverson asks, “are we suddenly rejecting science by forcing vaccines on absolutely everyone?”
In the largest real-world observational study, conducted in Israel — one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world — scientists followed 700,000 people, splitting them into three groups: vaccinated people who received two doses of the Pfizer jab, unvaccinated people who recovered from COVID, and individuals who both recovered from the virus and received one dose the Pfizer vaccine.
The study found natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization.
“The researchers hypothesize that it’s because of B and T cell memory,” Iverson explained. “And the fact that people who recovered from the virus are exposed to the entire virus, not just the spike protein that the vaccines expose the body to.”
The study is yet to be peer-reviewed, she said, but the findings are consistent with other studies and public health data.
“For some strange, politicized reason,” said Iverson, “this scientific fact has been hotly debated in the U.S.”
For example, she explains:
“In the incidence of chickenpox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends vaccination for those who haven’t had a previous infection. On their website, under the heading, ‘Who needs a chickenpox vaccine?’ the CDC says: ‘People 13 years of age and older who have never had chickenpox or received chickenpox vaccine should get two doses, at least 28 days apart.’
“Same thing for the measles, and even polio, if they are not combined with other vaccines. Even during the smallpox outbreak, when vaccines became mandated, the certificate of immunity clearly gives clearance for those who had previously recovered from smallpox.”
So, Iverson asks, why are world health officials ignoring the science of natural immunity?
“Are public health officials just caving to the demands of a frightened public?” Iverson wondered. “Are they caving to the desires of greedy Big Pharma?”
Iverson said:
“In the European Union, where some countries have implemented vaccine passports, people can obtain one by either showing proof of vaccination, testing negative for the virus within 72 hours, or through proof of recovery from previous infection.
“This is based on sound science. So, what is it that is causing this sudden rejection of widely accepted science here in the United States?
“We currently have colleges, corporations, Big Tech, politicians and U.S. public health officials, all openly excluding natural immunity as a basis for medical exemption.
“When recovered patients raise an eyebrow over policies mandating they be vaccinated, their education, their livelihoods and their ability to participate in society are threatened.”
“Natural immunity appears to confer longer lasting and stronger protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization from the Delta variant compared to Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-dose vaccine-induced immunity, according to a new Israeli preprint study.
The new data could play a key role in determining whether people who have previously had COVID need to receive both doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, Science reported.
In the largest real-world observational study comparing natural immunity gained through previous SARS-CoV-2 infection to vaccine-induced immunity afforded by the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, people who recovered from COVID were much less likely than never-infected, vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms or be hospitalized.
The study, published Aug. 25 on medRxiv, was conducted in one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world using data from Maccabi Healthcare Services, which enrolls about 2.5 million Israelis, or about 26% of the population.
Researchers examined medical records of 673,676 Israelis 16 years and older — charting their infections, symptoms and hospitalizations between June 1 and Aug. 14, when the Delta variant predominated in Israel.
The study, led by Tal Patalon and Sivan Gazit, with Maccabi’s research and innovation arm, KSM, found in two analyses that people who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2 but were vaccinated in January and February were six to 13 times more likely to experience breakthrough infection with the Delta variant compared to unvaccinated people who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Researchers noted increased risk was significant for asymptomatic disease as well.
“This analysis demonstrated that natural immunity affords longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the Delta variant,” the researchers said.
“It’s a textbook example of how natural immunity is really better than vaccination,” Charlotte Thålin, a physician and immunology researcher at Danderyd Hospital and the Karolinska Institute, told Science. “To my knowledge, it’s the first time [this] has really been shown in the context of COVID-19.”
In one analysis that assessed more than 32,000 people in the health system, the risk of developing symptomatic COVID was 27 times higher among the vaccinated and the risk of hospitalization eight times higher, Science reported.
“The differences are huge,” said Thålin, although she cautioned the numbers for infections and other events analyzed for the comparisons were small.
Scripps’s Eric Topol pointed out several limitations with the study, such as the inherent weakness of a retrospective analysis compared with a prospective study that regularly tests all participants as it tracks new infections, symptomatic infections, hospitalizations and deaths going forward in time.
Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University who researches the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, said the Israeli study confirms laboratory findings from a series of papers in Nature and Immunity by his group, and a study by colleague Dr. Paul Bieniasz –– whose team published a preprint earlier this month showing polyclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 should be resilient to future SARS-CoV-2 variants and may confer protection against future sarbecovirus pandemics.
Nussenzweig said his group published data showing people who recover from a SARS-CoV-2 infection continue to develop increasing numbers and types of coronavirus-targeting antibodies for up to 12 months.
By contrast, Nussenzweig said, twice-vaccinated people stop seeing increases “in the potency or breadth of the overall memory antibody compartment” a few months after their second dose.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1
Abstract
Background Reports of waning vaccine-induced immunity against COVID-19 have begun to surface. With that, the comparable long-term protection conferred by previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 remains unclear.
Methods We conducted a retrospective observational study comparing three groups: (1)SARS-CoV-2-naïve individuals who received a two-dose regimen of the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine, (2)previously infected individuals who have not been vaccinated, and (3)previously infected and single dose vaccinated individuals. Three multivariate logistic regression models were applied. In all models we evaluated four outcomes: SARS-CoV-2 infection, symptomatic disease, COVID-19-related hospitalization and death. The follow-up period of June 1 to August 14, 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant in Israel.
Results SARS-CoV-2-naïve vaccinees had a 13.06-fold (95% CI, 8.08 to 21.11) increased risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant compared to those previously infected, when the first event (infection or vaccination) occurred during January and February of 2021. The increased risk was significant (P<0.001) for symptomatic disease as well. When allowing the infection to occur at any time before vaccination (from March 2020 to February 2021), evidence of waning natural immunity was demonstrated, though SARS-CoV-2 naïve vaccinees had a 5.96-fold (95% CI, 4.85 to 7.33) increased risk for breakthrough infection and a 7.13-fold (95% CI, 5.51 to 9.21) increased risk for symptomatic disease. SARS-CoV-2-naïve vaccinees were also at a greater risk for COVID-19-related-hospitalizations compared to those that were previously infected.
Conclusions This study demonstrated that natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity. Individuals who were both previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and given a single dose of the vaccine gained additional protection against the Delta variant.”
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