> The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a large Israeli study...
Overall, 246 case-patients met eligibility requirements and were successfully matched by age, sex, and date of initial infection with 492 controls.
The Israeli study I linked:
Overall, 673,676 MHS members 16 years and older were eligible for the study group of fully vaccinated SARS-CoV-2-naïve individuals; 62,883 were eligible for the study group of unvaccinated previously infected individuals and 42,099 individuals were eligible for the study group of previously infected and single-dose vaccinees.
I'm going to go ahead and trust the more recent Israeli study which has much more data to go off of. Also note that in either case, the narrative is still that past infection provides protection. If it's much better, almost as good, or as good as the vaccines is all fine by me. It's still excellent protection and on par with what people were rolling with maskless just a few weeks ago.
Time to evolve the narrative in the media about "vax vs unvax"
This is a case of the CDC either lying or at least being deliberately misleading with their headline: the study in question shows that amongst people previously infected with COVID those who were also vaccinated were less likely to be hospitalized.
“In today’s MMWR, a study of COVID-19 infections in Kentucky among people who were previously infected with SAR-CoV-2 shows that unvaccinated individuals are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated after initially contracting the virus.”
If you read it carefully, that CDC study compares vaccinated vs unvaccinated in the population of people that recovered from covid.
It does not compare vaccinated (and not recovered) vs recovered (but not vaccinated), but I have seen many people misinterpret it in this way including journalists.
I think this sort of misdirection is by design with how often I see it happening, the right does not have a monopoly on spreading misinformation.
The "we are figuring this out as we go" factor for this is massive, something that's rarely acknowledged yet a big factor for the more rational opposition to "just vaccinate everybody all the time".
What if this was worse? That's some 25 million people in the USA alone. What if it was much worse and what if we don't know the full story?
We must be allowed to figure everything out as we go, but for some reason the Democrats in power want to divide us along vaxed vs unvaxed lines. Why? That's a false dilemma considering the 100+ million who have excellent antibodies from natural immunity already.
It's weird how under-reported any findings on side-effects are, another one to watch out for is hepatitis infections [0]
I also don't think it's particularly useful to frame this into a US domestic "the democrats in power!" narrative.
The issue is extremely polarized all over the world, rarely any place allows for any nuance outside of the imagined "anybody who doesn't want to get vaccinated fears Bill Gates 5G" two camps.
Trying to make this into a "Them Democrats are to blame!" is just more of that partisan kindergarten in a different flavor.
I agree that it is weird how under-reported findings on side effects are. The narrative has been such that it's not considered okay or safe to discuss those or to report on those as openly. And treating the established narrative as sacrosanct.
I hear you and accept your point about mentioning a political party. If you are sensitive to that type of thing, it is my hope that you will also be sensitive to the "vax vs unvax" and "pandemic of the unvaccinated" false dilemmas being painted in the media.
That's a fallacious appeal to authority and also an appeal to the volume of supposed authorities. It doesn't matter how smart they are. That doesn't change that we do see tyranny emerging, notably in places like Australia. And even NYC where they are now piloting "papers please" as a model. I've shared these before, but here is what is happening in Australia:
They're going to force people who quarantine at home (rather than a government-mandated quarantine "hotel" with guards) to install and use an app. Facial recognition, GPS tracking in your own home. And it will randomly ping you, and if you don't respond within 15 minutes it'll send the police to your house to conduct an in-person quarantine check. Source:
“NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday announced freedoms for fully vaccinated people once 70% of the state’s eligible population are double dosed. These include being able to go to hospitality venues, hairdressers and gyms, and have five people to your home.”
They can arbitrarily lock you in your apartment building for up to weeks, no one allowed to leave. Source:
Do you want things like these being built everywhere? Does Australia not have "many, very smart people working on this" and taking it seriously? Is this a debate to entertain, or an existential threat to your and my free way of life? I'm not here to debate anything. I have lots of work to do. I'm here to raise the alarm far outside my comfort zone because barely anyone else is. This is a blatant power grab. Wake up.
And the CDC has a study saying the opposite:
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0806-vaccination-pr...
So, maybe we need a few more studies before jumping to conclusions.