Vaccination or infection, same fight against Covid-19. According to one of the largest studies on this subject, a person infected with the virus is as well protected as a person vaccinated against the coronavirus. “Even if an infection gives protection which decreases over time, the level of this (…) seems as durable, or even more than that conferred by vaccination”, concludes this work published in the journal The Lancet.
This comparison is based on the messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which are among the most effective against Covid-19 and are the spearheads of vaccination campaigns in many Western countries.
The subject is not new and many studies have already tried to compare the risks of catching Covid-19 again, depending on whether you are vaccinated or have already been infected. But the work published in the Lancet is of an unprecedented scale: it compiles around sixty pre-existing studies, with a follow-up of several years which notably takes into account the emergence at the end of 2021 of the Omicron variant.
The latter proved to be much more contagious than its predecessors and capable of infecting many vaccinated people, without them running a high risk of a serious form. The study of Lancet concludes that the same applies in the event of past infection with the coronavirus: the protection is rather weak against a reinfection with Omicron, but solid against a severe form.
Vaccination remains the best solution
These results do not mean that it is indifferent to be vaccinated or to be infected to acquire a first immunity: it is indeed much more risky to fall ill, in particular at the oldest. However, this study provides a more accurate picture of what can be expected in the population from the development of “hybrid” immunity, as more and more individuals have been both vaccinated and sick at least once.
“In the long term, most infections will strike people who are well protected against severe forms, following a previous infection, vaccination or both”, underlined researchers, not involved in the study, in a comment also posted by Lancet. These results therefore raise hopes that future waves of Covid will result in low levels of hospitalizations, they conclude.