OP-ED: Infections vs vaccination: What gives better immunity?

And no, you shouldn’t try to catch it …

Israel was way ahead of the rest of the world when it came to Covid vaccination, so it’s not surprising that data from this corner of the Mediterranean causes a lot of excitement -- it’s a glimpse into the future.

Indeed, this happened recently when researchers at Maccabi Healthcare Services in Tel Aviv released a preprint (a study that is yet to be reviewed by other experts) suggesting people who had been infected with Covid had greater protection than vaccinated people against becoming re-infected with the delta variant. Unfortunately, some took this to mean that getting Covid is a better idea than getting vaccinated.

First, the possibility that a Covid infection leads to longer-lived immunity than vaccination is not far-fetched. Infection exposes our immune system to several viral proteins, whereas the most commonly used Covid vaccines introduce a single antigen: The spike protein. This results in a more directed but also a more restricted immune response than after infection.

Although people who have had Covid can get re-infected, naturally acquired immunity continues to evolve over time and antibodies remain detectable for longer than was first anticipated. New evidence suggests that immunity following both severe and mild infection protects against both symptomatic and asymptomatic re-infection.