• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Israeli Study Finds that Natural Immunity Protects Much Better Against Infection than Pfizer Vaccine

by Noah Carl
27 August 2021 8:15 AM

Since the start of the global vaccine roll-out, it’s become increasingly clear that – although the vaccines provide strong protection against severe disease – they provide only limited protection against infection.

Israel and Iceland, two of the most vaccinated countries in the world, have recently seen major outbreaks of COVID-19. Both countries had fully vaccinated 60% of the population by July 1st. Yet by early August, Iceland had posted its largest daily total for the number of new infections since the pandemic began, and case numbers in Israel were soaring.

However, the question of whether vaccines are superior to natural immunity in terms of protection against infection has remained open. According to a Guardian article titled “Common myths about Covid – debunked”, which was written by a member of Independent SAGE, natural immunity is “not as good as the protection you get from being vaccinated”.

Yet a new paper suggests the reverse may be true: natural immunity is stronger and longer-lasting than vaccine-induced immunity.

Sivan Gazit and colleagues analysed a large sample of anonymised patient records from Israel. Their sample included two key groups: fully vaccinated people who’d never tested positive; and unvaccinated people who had tested positive.

In addition to matching these two groups for size, and average demographic characteristics, they controlled for ‘immune activation time’. This was done by limiting the sample to people who’d been vaccinated or infected between January 1st and February 28th, 2021.

Patients’ Covid outcomes (subsequent infection, hospitalisation or death) were measured during a follow-up period between June 1st and August 14th.

What did the researchers find? Of the 257 cases that were detected in the follow-up period, 93% occurred in the vaccinated group, and only 7% occurred in the previously infected group. And of nine hospitalisations, eight occurred in the vaccinated group, compared to just one in the previously infected group.

These results indicate that natural immunity confers substantially more protection against infection than vaccine-induced immunity. They also suggest that natural immunity confers more protection against hospitalisation, although one should be cautious here, as there were only nine hospitalisations in total.

The researchers point out that their results may only apply to the Delta variant, and to the Pfizer vaccine, and that they couldn’t control for all relevant differences between the two groups. Nonetheless, their paper provides the strongest evidence to date that natural immunity beats vaccine-induced immunity when it comes to infection.

Francious Balloux of UCL, a self-described “militant corona-centrist”, said the paper “is a bit of a bombshell”. Though he added that “essentially every adult who hasn’t been infected yet greatly benefits from being vaccinated”.

Gazit and colleagues’ findings still need to be replicated. But if they prove to be robust, then government priorities may shift substantially going forward. The case for vaccinating healthy young people will be even weaker. And the case for donating surplus vaccines to poor countries will be that much stronger.

Tags: IsraelNatural immunityVaccines

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

News Round-Up

Next Post

Australia is Falling Apart

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

121 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

The Sceptic | Episode 40: Rob Bates on Stopping Britain Becoming Majority-Minority, Tilak Doshi on Trump vs Green Blob and Mario Trabucco on Osborne’s Elgin Marbles Betrayal

by Richard Eldred
13 June 2025
1

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

News Round-Up

19 June 2025
by Richard Eldred

J.K. Rowling Radicalised by TERFs, Says Stephen Fry

19 June 2025
by Will Jones

Another Nail in the EV Coffin

19 June 2025
by Sallust

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

19 June 2025
by Ben Pile

Pointless International Research – Paid For By You, The Taxpayer

19 June 2025
by Charlotte Gill

J.K. Rowling Radicalised by TERFs, Says Stephen Fry

24

News Round-Up

21

Iran Threatens Energy Market Meltdown as it “Reviews” Closure of Strait of Hormuz

15

Another Nail in the EV Coffin

14

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

14

Iran Threatens Energy Market Meltdown as it “Reviews” Closure of Strait of Hormuz

19 June 2025
by Tilak Doshi

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

19 June 2025
by Ben Pile

Pointless International Research – Paid For By You, The Taxpayer

19 June 2025
by Charlotte Gill

Tearing Bodies Apart on the Altar of Science

18 June 2025
by Dr David Bell

German Pensioner Who Called Green Politician Robert Habeck a Moron Found Guilty of Five Criminal Retweets and Fined €825

18 June 2025
by Eugyppius

POSTS BY DATE

August 2021
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Jul   Sep »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

POSTS BY DATE

August 2021
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Jul   Sep »

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

News Round-Up

19 June 2025
by Richard Eldred

J.K. Rowling Radicalised by TERFs, Says Stephen Fry

19 June 2025
by Will Jones

Another Nail in the EV Coffin

19 June 2025
by Sallust

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

19 June 2025
by Ben Pile

Pointless International Research – Paid For By You, The Taxpayer

19 June 2025
by Charlotte Gill

J.K. Rowling Radicalised by TERFs, Says Stephen Fry

24

News Round-Up

21

Iran Threatens Energy Market Meltdown as it “Reviews” Closure of Strait of Hormuz

15

Another Nail in the EV Coffin

14

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

14

Iran Threatens Energy Market Meltdown as it “Reviews” Closure of Strait of Hormuz

19 June 2025
by Tilak Doshi

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

19 June 2025
by Ben Pile

Pointless International Research – Paid For By You, The Taxpayer

19 June 2025
by Charlotte Gill

Tearing Bodies Apart on the Altar of Science

18 June 2025
by Dr David Bell

German Pensioner Who Called Green Politician Robert Habeck a Moron Found Guilty of Five Criminal Retweets and Fined €825

18 June 2025
by Eugyppius

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment