That title is probably a misnomer, but something that has been driving me a little nuts lately is the provisions made for vaccinated individuals to enter into stores unmasked, while those, like myself, who have had the disease aren’t afforded the same privilege.
I’ve listened to ideas of a ‘vaccine passport’ being floated around and wondered if people like myself would be included since we have immunity too. Some of the pushback I’ve gotten includes people telling me that the vaccines provide a more robust and long-lasting protection, and that I should just get a vaccine anyway since they are harmless.
I have been sent several articles explaining why I should get the vaccine, even if I’ve already had covid. The problem is, while the journalists writing those articles did indeed make that case, they did so by referencing papers that supposedly backed them up. But I have this weird tendency when I’m reading about such matters to actually follow up, click on the link, and read the papers that have been referenced. I’m guessing most people don’t do that and the journalists probably weren’t expecting their readers to, because the papers didn’t actually back up the argument the journalists were trying to make.
And since this questions of immunity level between the vaccinated and those who’ve had the disease is important and highly relevant for policy and life at this moment, I’ve taken to bookmarking for reference the various studies I’ve been able to find that support my contention.
I don’t know who, if anyone, actually reads what I write, but just in case someone is, I’ll state a few things up front:
1) I’m not anti-vaccine. I have had all the regular childhood vaccines we got when we were kids. I got my kids vaccinated when they were little. When I went to India back in 2017, I got all the relevant and recommended vaccines.
2) I’m not even against this covid vaccine. I know many people who’ve gotten it and had no problems.
But I also know people who have gotten it and had serious problems and have one friend whose brother died from it. I’m aware that there are increasing numbers of people who have had negative effects and that there are also a small but significant number of people who have died from it. Comparing risk between Covid and the Vaccine, my guess is covid is worse, and being vaccinated if one hasn’t had the disease is probably the better choice.
That said, it’s pretty obvious to me that there are some risks in the vaccine, and it isn’t maybe as safe as some would make it out to be. I’m not here to rag on the vaccine, I’m just trying to understand if it’s worthwhile for ME, someone who has already had the disease, to bother getting it, and I think the answer is no. As far as I can tell, my acquired immunity from having had the disease will provide as good, or better, immunity to covid than getting vaccinated.
The studies.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.19.21255739v2
“We evaluate 254 COVID-19 patients longitudinally up to eight months and find durable broad-based immune responses.”
“Vaccination was highly effective with overall estimated efficacy for documented infection of 92·8%. Similarly, the overall estimated level of protection from prior SARS-CoV-2 infection for documented infection is 94·8%. Our results question the need to vaccinate previously-infected individuals.”
This study found that while blood samples drawn from Covid infected patients show diminished antibodies, bone marrow plasma cells show a long lived protective antibody response.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03647-4_reference.pdf
“Overall, we show that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces a robust antigen-specifc, long-lived humoral immune response in humans.”
This one answers a question I had. I got Covid back in Sept 2020. I then decided to get an antibody test in April, and it showed negative. I was then considering whether I should get the vaccine, but the nurse told me not to worry, since my body would still remember how to fight the disease. I didn’t press her on it, but I found it odd since I thought it was the antibodies that would remember how to do so, and if I didn’t have them, then how could it do that?
But she probably knew that the test given would only reach a certain level, while, as this study shows, the acquired response would still be remembered by the bone marrow.
This last one isn’t a paper, it is an article that references several other papers- some of which I’ve already referenced above.
“This evidence follows a flurry of papers that have suggested that reinfections are rare and immune protection after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection lasts quite long.”
So, at least at this point, I feel pretty confident that I’m as protected, if not more, than those that have only had the vaccine. Given that there have been relatively few, but some serious, adverse effects with the vaccine, there is no benefit to me personally getting it.
Update 2021 08 17: https://newsrescue.com/delta-variant-natural-immunity-700-greater-protection-than-shot-data-from-israeli-govt-shows/
Dr. Ryan Cole, a Mayo Clinic-trained pathologist who runs the largest independent laboratory in Idaho, explained to me how infection-induced immunity is much deeper and broader. “A natural infection induces hundreds upon hundreds of antibodies against all proteins of the virus, including the envelope, the membrane, the nucleocapsid, and the spike,” said Dr. Cole, who has spent the past 16 months examining and culturing SARS-CoV-2 specimens. “Dozens upon dozens of these antibodies neutralize the virus when encountered again. Additionally, because of the immune system exposure to these numerous proteins (epitomes), our T cells mount a robust memory, as well. Our T cells are the ‘marines’ of the immune system and the first line of defense against pathogens. T cell memory to those infected with SARSCOV1 is at 17 years and running still.”
Irish study:
Quantifying the risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 reinfection over time. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8209951/pdf/RMV-9999-e2260.pdf
Reinfection was an uncommon event (absolute rate 0%–1.1%), with no study reporting an increase in the risk of reinfection over time. Only one study estimated the population‐level risk of reinfection based on whole genome sequencing in a subset of patients; the estimated risk was low (0.1% [95% CI: 0.08–0.11%]) with no evidence of waning immunity for up to 7 months following primary infection. These data suggestthat naturally acquired SARS‐CoV‐2 immunity does not wane for atleast 10 months post‐infection. However, the applicability of these studies to new variants or to vaccine‐induced immunity remains uncertain.
Updates as they come.