Importantly, the Cornell University-funded study found that both natural immunity and vaccines offer “strong and durable protection” against Covid-related hospitalization and death.
Monday, July 18, 2022
Jon Miltimore
News reports say the Biden administration is currently weighing a plan that would allow all adults to receive a second Covid-19 booster, citing concerns from White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci about the spike in hospitalizations “fueled by the extremely contagious omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.”
Currently second booster shots are only offered to individuals over the age of 50.
Meanwhile, discussion of a potential fifth shot is already underway. During a recent television appearance, CNN host Don Lemon asked CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner if such a scenario is likely.
LEMON: “That was my next question, I’m giving away my age because I’ve already had four shots, I’ve had two boosters, so I’m over 50.”
REINER: “Me too.”
LEMON: “So are we going to get a fifth shot? We’re going to have to have a fifth shot?”
REINER: "Yeah, probably.
The discussions highlight certain realities of Covid immunization.
“Immunity wanes,” Fauci said during a White House briefing on Tuesday, “whether that’s immunity following infection or immunity following vaccine.”
Natural Immunity vs Vaccination
While it’s true that immunization wanes, new scientific research from The New England Journal of Medicine suggests natural immunity lasts longer than immunity acquired from vaccines.
The study, a case–control analysis based on data from Qatar collected from December 23, 2021 through February 21, 2022, involved millions of people, including 1,306,862 who received at least two doses of the Pfizer vaccine (BNT162b2) and 893,671 people who received at least two doses of the Moderna vaccine (mRNA-1273), as well unvaccinated individuals.