The world population is well protected against Covid-19 after being infected with the coronavirus as when it was vaccinated against the disease, concluded a scientific study published this Friday, one of the longest on the subject.
The work was published by the British weekly “The Lancet”, andspecialized in international medicine, having an unprecedented impact due to the magnitude of its conclusions. HE compile some sixty pre-existing investigations“with a setback of several years and takes into account the emergence, at the end of 2021, of the omicron variant,” the AFP news agency reported.
“Although an infection provides protection that diminishes over time, the level of this protection seems as durable, or even longer, than that conferred by the vaccination itself,” concluded the study published in the renowned medical journal, founded in 1983, in strong scientific impact.
The thesis was based comparing the most effective vaccines against covid-19 and which are the mainstays of vaccination campaigns in many Western countries, although the subject is not new and many other studies have tried to compare the risks of contracting the virus again, depending on whether one is vaccinated or has already has been infected.
In that sense, the omicron variant proved to be much more contagious than its predecessors and capable of infecting many vaccinated people, without putting them at high risk of suffering a severe form of the disease.
The study concludes that the same happens in case of previous infection by coronavirus. The protection is rather weak against a reinfection with the omicron variant, but strong against a more severe form, comparing the antibodies after the vaccine and those acquired by the infection.
This results do not mean that it is indifferent to get vaccinated or infected to then acquire a first immunity. From now on it is much more risky to get sick, due to its consequences, especially in the case of the elderly.
However, this study published in “The Lancet” offers a more precise vision of what can be expected from the development of a “hybrid immunity” in the population, as many more individuals have been vaccinated and contracted the virus at least once. The results suggest that future waves of Covid will lead to low levels of hospitalization, the medical study concludes.
