People who have had Covid-19 are far better protected against the Delta variant than the double-jabbed.
The fully-vaccinated are 13 times more likely to catch the variant than those who have natural immunity, researchers at Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel have discovered.
The difference could be explained by the vaccine’s declining protective powers, which other Israeli researchers have calculated wanes to just 16 percent after six months.
For the new study, researchers analysed a group of 32,000 people, half of whom had caught the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the first two months of 2021 while the rest had received their second Pfizer jab. During the six-month follow-up period, 257 in the vaccinated group, and just 19 in the previously-infected group, caught the Delta variant.
The vaccinated were nearly six times more likely to get the Delta variant and seven times more likely to suffer from symptoms. The vaccinated were also at greater risk of needing hospital treatment for their infection.
“Natural immunity confers longer-lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant,” the researchers conclude.
The research, which claims to be one of the largest thus far undertaken into the Covid jabs, follows an earlier Israeli research study that had examined the length of time the Pfizer vaccine was effective. The studies have been sparked by the sudden leap in Covid cases in the country—at one stage it has been recording the highest number of daily cases in the world—even though it was one of the first to achieve mass immunisation.
(Source: Science, 2021; 373: 6559)
