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Washington (AFP) – During the latest delta-driven wave of coronavirus in the United States, unvaccinated people who survived Covid were better protected than those who were vaccinated and uninfected before, according to a new study published Wednesday.
The finding adds to the debate about the relative strengths of natural immunity compared to that acquired through the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, and is endorsed by the federal agency the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. of Diseases (CDC) of the United States.
However, the paper’s authors cautioned against relying on infection as a strategy to acquire immunity given the higher risk of hospitalization, long-term impacts, and death in unvaccinated people, compared to those who do get vaccinated.
“The level of protection offered by vaccination and survival from previous infection changed during the study period. Vaccination remains the safest strategy to protect against COVID-19,” the CDC said in a statement.
The analysis was done before booster injections became widely available and also before the appearance of the omicron variant, for which both immunity from the vaccine and from previous infection appeared to decrease.
The new study involved patients in New York and California between May 30 and November 30, 2021.
For the week of Oct. 3, case rates among vaccinated people without prior COVID were about six times lower in California and five times lower in New York, compared to the unvaccinated and without prior COVID.
But infection rates were substantially lower among people with prior COVID, up to 29 times in California and 15 times in New York, among unvaccinated people with a prior diagnosis, compared with those who were unvaccinated and unvaccinated. .
Before Delta became dominant, vaccination conferred greater immunity than infection itself. But the relationship changed when the variant became predominant in late June and July.
The highest protection in the study was among those who had vaccines and prior COVID, and hospitalization rates followed a similar pattern.
© 2022 AFP
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