[zacharytelschow]

"Clinical studies from Israel, the Cleveland Clinic, England and elsewhere have demonstrated beyond a doubt that natural immunity to SARS-CoV-2 provides robust and durable protection against reinfection comparable to or better than that provided by the most effective vaccines." source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vaccine-mandate-natural-immunit...

(Referenced studies are linked in the article).

Why should people who already have antibodies take marginal unnecessary risk for no gain?

[acdha]

WSJ editorials also endorsed taking horse dewormer as a COVID cure. Favorable coverage by a political ally of an activity filing a lawsuit is not to be confused with a scientific consensus

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7032e1.htm

“Among Kentucky residents infected with SARS-CoV-2 in 2020, vaccination status of those reinfected during May–June 2021 was compared with that of residents who were not reinfected. In this case-control study, being unvaccinated was associated with 2.34 times the odds of reinfection compared with being fully vaccinated.”

[criticaltinker]

I agree that people need to stop linking to news and media articles.

While it might be fair to challenge the credibility of WSJ, you should know that the CDC study you cited had a relatively small sample size and was limited to a small geographic area over a 2 month period. Recent large scale multicentre studies with ~100x more participants have provided strong counter evidence that natural infection confers highly effective protection [3].

> A previous history of SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with an 84% lower risk of infection, with median protective effect observed 7 months following primary infection. This time period is the minimum probable effect because seroconversions were not included. This study shows that previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces effective immunity to future infections in most individuals. [3]

For reference here's high quality publications supporting GP's claim that natural infection provides robust and durable immunity that is at least as protective as vaccination [1][2][3][4].

[1] SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03647-4.pdf

[2] Longitudinal analysis shows durable and broad immune memory after SARS-CoV-2 infection with persisting antibody responses and memory B and T cells https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-37...

[3] SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of antibody-positive compared with antibody-negative health-care workers in England: a large, multicentre, prospective cohort study (SIREN) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33844963/

[4] Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.01.21258176v...

[lostphilosopher]

As long as the data continues to indicate that prior infection provides equivalent protection and that prior infection is verifiable then that seems like that should be a valid exception to a vaccination requirement. The verification is key though, it seems like everyone who got a cold in 2020 _thinks_ they had Covid.

[thex10]

Why does reduction in death/hospitalization/severe illness keep being interpreted as "no gain" by the skeptics?

[l8rlump]

In the context of their statement, if natural immunity is as good as vaccination, then there is no gain from vaccination.

[nanis]

Also, we do not yet have a good idea about the real world levels of reduction in "death/hospitalization/severe illness". Currently, in the United States, known deaths from Covid19 among people stands at "eight point seven per million fully vaccinated" (aka, 8.7/million) and has been steadily increasing since April[1,2].

Hospitalizations from Covid19 among the fully vaccinated stands at "thirty six per million fully vaccinated" and steadily increasing.

Since both outcomes come at the end of a process (get vaccinated -> get exposed to the virus -> get an infection -> require a hospital visit -> die from illness), there is naturally at least five or weeks lags between someone completing the full vaccination schedule and the hospitalization/death outcome occurring.

Given that about half the full vaccinations in the U.S. happened since April and given that the consensus seems to be that vaccine conferred protection lasts about 6-8 months, I would not expect the "deaths from Covid19 per million fully vaccinated against Covid19" to stabilize until October.

In the mean time, the unvaccinated will either have to submit or driven into the shadows with the current policies. Pretty soon, it will be a miracle to find anyone whose natural immune response without vaccination can be measured/tested at all.

[1]: Current version: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/bre...

[2]: Snapshots since April: https://archive.ph/https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/hea...

[l8rlump]

No gain and possibly harmful. I read this recently and thought it interesting. Admittedly, references would be nice though.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28091443

[criticaltinker]

To further support your argument, we are on the verge legal precedent that it is unconstitutional for public institutions (e.g. public universities) to mandate vaccination - and predicate employment on it - for people who already have antibodies acquired through natural infection [1].

> Prof. Zywicki’s immunologist, Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, has advised him that, based on his personal health and immunity status, it is medically unnecessary to get a Covid-19 vaccine — and that it violates medical ethics to order unnecessary procedures.

> the Policy is unmistakably coercive and cannot reasonably be considered anything other than an unlawful mandate. And even if the Policy is not deemed coercive, it still represents an unconstitutional condition being applied to Professor Zywicki’s constitutional rights to bodily integrity and informed medical choice, respectively.

> GMU’s Policy infringes upon Professor Zywicki’s rights under the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28262820