The Lancet has reported that natural immunity is just as effective as two doses of COVID vaccine shots in preventing both reinfection and serious illness from the virus.
The study has come years after the rollout of vaccine mandates that led to the firing of thousands of workers.
People enraged over report that states natural immunity as effective as COVID vaccine shots
The findings published in the February edition of the Lancet were based on a review of 65 separate studies from 19 different countries.
The study was funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. And senior study author, Dr. Christopher Murray, hailed the findings.
“This is really good news, in the sense that protection against severe dislancetcovidease and death after infection is really quite sustained at 10 months,” said Murray. The study “supports the idea that those with a documented infection should be treated similarly to those who have been fully vaccinated with high-quality vaccines,” according to researchers.
“Although protection from reinfection from all variants wanes over time, our analysis of the available data suggests that the level of protection afforded by previous infection is at least as high,” the report stated.
But not everyone was pleased to hear the report findings. Many who lost jobs, fell out with friends, or were derided as anti-vaxxers simply for expressing skepticism about the effectiveness of the shots, are fuming about the Lancet’s findings.
Many people expressed their rage on social media over the report. “The science’ now shows we ‘conspiracy theorists’ were right all along,” one person wrote.
“Those of us with natural immunity were blamed for ‘killing grandma’. So what’s going to happen now? Are people going to call The Lancet conspiracy theorists too?” a furious pundit asked.
More findings from the report
According to the Lancet’s report, protection against reinfection from the original strain of COVID, as well as the alpha and delta variants, stood at an average of 78.6% 40 weeks after the initial infection. However, protection against reinfection by the omicron variant declined more rapidly and was estimated at 36.1% 40 weeks on.
Protection against severe diseases, such as hospitalization or death, remained high across all variants, at more than 88% 40 weeks after the initial infection, the report stated.
