Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who is also a member of the Pfizer board, noted that “natural immunity” from a previous COVID-19 infection should be included. in debates about virus-related policies and mandates.
“The balance of evidence shows that natural immunity confers lasting protection,” Gottlieb said during an August 30 interview, referring to a new Israeli prepress study that found that previous COVID-19 infection confers more protection against the virus than any of the vaccines. “It’s fair to conclude that.”
While Gottlieb said he would “be careful” when concluding whether natural immunity provides better protection against virus transmission, officials “should begin to assimilate it into our political discussions.”
“Natural infection confers robust and lasting immunity,” he said, citing the Israeli study and others.
However, whether natural immunity or vaccines are better than others “is not so important” when it comes to policy discussions, Gottlieb said.
Last week, researchers at Maccabi Healthcare and Tel Aviv University said people who had recovered from COVID-19 had superior protection against the Delta variant of the CCP virus compared to those who received the Pfizer vaccine. mRNA, the most widely used trait in Israel.
“This analysis showed that natural immunity provides longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease, and hospitalization due to the Delta variant,” the study says, noting that the results came from the ” largest real-world observational study “in the world.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, noted the results for a period between June 1 and August 14 this year.
When the researchers compared cases of previous infection that occurred between March 2020 and February 2021 with vaccines that occurred between January and February 2021, they found that the vaccinated cohort was 5.96 times more likely to be vaccinated. contract the Delta variant and 7.13 times more at risk of symptoms. disease compared to those previously infected.
Vaccines had a higher risk of COVID-19-related hospitalizations compared to those who were previously infected, the authors noted. They also noted that 60 years or older increased the risk of infection and hospitalization.
The authors said they only examined protection against the Delta variant, and only the Pfizer vaccine and not other vaccines or booster vaccines.
Mimi Nguyen-Ly contributed to this report.
Jack Phillips
Senior Reporter
Jack Phillips is a journalist at The Epoch Times based in New York.