Prior infection offered better protection than vaccination against delta: CDC

People who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with a history of infection were best protected against infection from the delta variant, followed by people who were unvaccinated and had recovered from a previous infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Those who survived a previous infection but were unvaccinated were also better protected against the delta variant than people who were vaccinated alone.

“These results demonstrate that vaccination protects against COVID-19 and related hospitalization, and that surviving a previous infection protects against a reinfection and related hospitalization,” the agency’s researchers reported on Wednesday.

The report analyzed infections caused by the delta variant last summer into the fall in California and New York. Scientists found that vaccination combined with recovery from previous infection provided the greatest measure of protection against infection from the delta variant, which became the dominant strain last July. Meanwhile, people who were unvaccinated but survived infection, conferring what is known as “natural immunity,” were better protected against severe illness due to delta than people who had gotten vaccinated but not recovered from infection.

“Importantly, infection-derived protection was greater after the highly transmissible Delta variant became predominant, coinciding with early declining of vaccine-induced immunity in many persons,” the report said.

Compared with COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated people who had never been infected, people who were unvaccinated but recovered from an infection were about as well-protected against hospitalization and death as people who had double protection from vaccines and prior infection. COVID-19 case rates were 7.2-fold lower in California and 9.9-fold lower in New York among unvaccinated persons with a previous COVID-19 diagnosis. Among vaccinated persons with a previous COVID-19 diagnosis, case rates were 9.6-fold lower in California and 8.5-fold lower in New York.

Oh, I was comparing the same dose vs casual infection, the dosage of which in the infecting inhale is not known.

No one responds exactly the same way to any virus. Even the same individual's immune system might be able to fight off an infection one day and not the next depending on the amount of sleep they have gotten recently, the amount of stress they are under, what they have eaten and how much, and a myriad of other factors all can make a difference. The type of exposure and the amount of viral load can make a huge difference as well. There are too many factors in play to quantify in any meaningful way.

Vax weakens for sure. I would think in a few months death protection is probably down by 1/2.

A pure guess on your part and likely not taking into account that repertory viruses are constantly mutating an evolving depending on the type and form. This is something which the "vaccines" are unable to handle. They were designed to combat a completely different pathogen that essentially no longer exists in the wild.

As we have seen with Omicron the transmissibility is now much higher but the seriousness of the symptoms is now typically much lower. Can an individual with a severely compromised immune system die “from” it as opposed to “with” it... maybe, but this is not nearly as likely as with previous strains. And the vaccines seem to have little if any protective value against omicron after the initial spike in immune system activity wears off. This is why all over the world populations with very high rates of vaccination have experienced huge spikes in their rates of infection, but deaths... not so much. So again, it is basically impossible to quantify the value of the vaccines after even a short period of time let alone in a "few months".

There seems to be a period after the injection with Omicron of negative vaccine efficacy. This helps explain why the fire department that I retired from as a Senior Hazmat Team Leader and Safety Officer with has more than 90% vaccine compliance currently has over twice the number of people off sick with than at any time period in its history. The persons who were scheduled to be fired for not getting the “vaccine” due to an order from our governor are currently being forced to work mandatory overtime to cover for their sick vaccinated brethren. Of course, the “unvaxxed” have been promised that they will still be fired as soon as the crisis has passed. But fear not, if it were not for the department's ability to test anyone with the sniffles under normal circumstances almost none of the “sick” have symptoms severe enough that they would have even bothered to stay home. There is also a perverse incentive caused by people being able to stay home with Covid and not have it count against their stored up sick time in a normal way.

Your description of your governor leads me to believe you live in the Peoples Republic of Washington.

Good guess... When my wife and I were growing up once you got out of the Seattle area, this was actually a conservative place. Of course, on the Eastern side of the Cascades in still is. But now when we go to the grocery stores and Costco near our home, the number of people even speaking English are less than half a good percentage of the time. I said to my wife that I have no problem accepting a certain number of outsiders while they assimilate into our society. But that is not what is happening here... we are being replaced. Native Washingtonians are now a minority in the state that we grew up in.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.