CNA – One of the largest studies yet undertaken on the subject revealed yesterday that the protection against COVID-19 from having previously contracted the disease lasts at least as long as that provided by vaccination.
According to a research that was published in the Lancet journal, participants still had an 88% decreased chance of reinfection, hospitalisation, and death ten months after receiving COVID-19.
According to the study, this natural immunity is "at least as persistent, if not more so" than two doses of the vaccines made by Pfizer or Moderna.
The authors emphasised that vaccination, which is still the safest strategy to build immunity, should not be discouraged in light of their findings.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which is based in the US, led the study, which it claimed was the most thorough examination of how long various types of immunity provide protection.
The researchers looked at 65 studies from 19 different nations up until September 2022, thus some of them spanned the time when Omicron swept the globe.
Omicron turned out to be less harmful but more contagious than earlier strains.
According to the study, those who had pre-Omicron immunity saw their defence against reinfection deteriorate substantially more quickly for the early Omicron strains, falling to 36% after 10 months.
According to study co-author Caroline Stein of the IHME, "vaccines continue to be crucial for everyone in order to protect high-risk populations such as those who are over 60 years of age and those with comorbidities." The study also provides a more accurate picture of COVID-19's potential future state when more vaccine recipients become reinfected and develop "hybrid immunity."
According to epidemiologist Cheryl Cohen of South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, "in the long term, most infections will occur in persons with substantial protection against severe disease due to previous infection, immunisation, or both."
According to Cohen's commentary in the Lancet, "Our results suggest that, similar to other human coronaviruses, there might be a low seasonal hospitalisation burden" linked with COVID-19.
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