Vaccination or infection, same fight against covid-19. According to one of the largest studies on the subject, a person infected with the virus is just as well protected as a person vaccinated against the coronavirus. “Even though infection provides protection that diminishes over time, this level (…) appears to be as durable, even longer than that conferred by vaccination,” concludes this paper, published in The Lancet journal.
This comparison is based on Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s messenger RNA vaccines, which are among the most effective against Covid-19 and are spearheading vaccination campaigns in many Western countries.
The topic is not new and many studies have attempted to compare the risks of contracting Covid-19 again depending on whether you have been vaccinated or previously infected. However, the work published in the Lancet is of unprecedented scale: it brings together around sixty pre-existing studies, with a backlog of several years, taking into account in particular the emergence of the Omicron variant in late 2021.
The latter proved to be much more contagious than its predecessors and able to infect many vaccinated individuals without putting them at high risk of developing a severe form. The Lancet study comes to the conclusion that even if you have been infected with the coronavirus in the past: Protection against reinfection with Omicron is rather weak, but solid against a severe form.
Vaccination remains the best solution
These results do not mean that being vaccinated or infected to obtain a first immunity is indifferent: it is in fact much more risky to get sick, especially in the elderly. However, this study provides a more accurate picture of what to expect from the development of ‘hybrid’ immunity in the population as more people are both vaccinated and diseased at least once.
“In the long term, most infections will affect people who are well protected against severe forms after a previous infection, vaccination or both,” underscored researchers not involved in the study, in a commentary also published by The Lancet. These results therefore raise hope that future Covid waves will result in low hospital admissions, they conclude.