A prior COVID-19 infection may provide unvaccinated adults with as much immunity against reinfection as the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines, new research suggests.
However, the study was conducted before the surge of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
“We found that, before the emergence of the Omicron variant, natural immunity provided a similar degree of protection against COVID-19 infection as mRNA vaccination,” said study author Dr. Ari Robicsek. He is chief medical analytics officer for the Providence health system, which operates in the western United States.
