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> In addition, the vaccine is vastly less life-threatening than acquiring natural immunity. Nobody reasonable is disputing this, but I find it interesting that

> In addition, the vaccine is vastly less life-threatening than acquiring natural immunity. Nobody reasonable is disputing this, but I find it interesting that this seems to be such a common response to the findings that natural immunity is strong and durable. It's as if some people are threatened by the fact that natural immunity is so good. I don't think any of the researchers looking into natural immunity are doing so to create a narrative that people should prefer to be infected than get vaccinated. Obviously, that would be dumb. They're doing so because substantial numbers of people have already been infected and for a variety of health and policy reasons, we need to know what that means. One of the good implications about the strength and durability of natural immunity is that in parts of the world where vaccines continue to be in short supply but significant percentages of people have already been infected the situation might be less dire than feared. > In addition, the vaccine is more effective against the original variant... More effective than what? Given that Delta is the variant responsible for over 90% of cases in the US (and likely a similar percentage in other parts of the world that continue to have high rates of infection), efficacy against the original strain of the virus is a less and less meaningful metric.

Imnimo 5y ago
I think the reason for this sort of response is that people are worried (and reasonably so, in my opinion), that people will say, "I'm pretty sure I had covid back in February of 2020 so I don't need the vaccine!"
- angelzen 5y ago
  First news item in a quick google search: "Cheap covid-19 antibody test shows if you have immunity in 5 minutes". Perhaps stop treating people like children that need to be lied to by omission 'for the common good'? https://www.newscientist.com/article/2290120-cheap-covid-19-antibody-test-shows-if-you-have-immunity-in-5-minutes https://www.newscientist.com/article/2290120-cheap-covid-19-...
  - Imnimo 5y ago
    I don't think the original commenter here is lying by omission, they're adding additional context - that even if you have natural immunity, you still benefit from getting vaccinated.
  - moistly 5y ago
    Antibodies are not produced forever and do not hang around for more than a few months. If you think you had covid last year you’re S.O.L. on the antibody testing front, because those antibodies are loooong gone.
    - guytpearson1 5y ago
      Your comment is not true.
      - moistly 5y ago
        It absolutely is true. Antibody production declines at an exponential rate(1). You don’t lose your immune response quickly, because T-cells and the like “remember” the virus—but your body doesn’t waste energy producing antibodies forever when there is no active need to have them around. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2025179 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2025179 Late edit: if you think you’ve lived through a sars-cov-2 infection, get it in writing within a few months.
        angelzen 5y ago
        This confuses false negatives with true positives. If someone can produce a positive antibody test, it means they had covid, period. As such, they don't need the vaccine. The credibility problem arises when people are so gungho into pushing vaccines onto everyone, whether they need it or not, that they willfully ignore any possible alternative.
  - joe_guy 5y ago
    That test has not begun clinical trials. I'm not sure why it's relevant to the discussion.
pacerwpg 5y ago
It's not that the information itself is threatening, but people will use the information in a destructive manner. I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that people will likely die from people saying that people don't need to get vaccinated because people will say natural immunity is 'better'. More context is almost always better.
- LurkingPenguin 5y ago
  > I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that people will likely die from people saying that people don't need to get vaccinated because people will say natural immunity is 'better'. In the US at least, vaccines have been widely available for months. You can literally get an appointment same day to receive the vaccine of your choice. 180 million people -- half the population -- are fully vaccinated. I don't think it's a stretch to conclude that at this point the people who have chosen not to get vaccinated are not going to be easily swayed. All of these people either a) know that COVID can be deadly and have decided to accept the risk, b) are so concerned/fearful about the vaccines that they will not consider them an option or c) are so crazy that no scientific data will influence their thinking. In this context, the "but if you get COVID you could die" responses that seem to be quickly posted every single time there's a study about the strength and durability of natural immunity are just strange to me.
  - zamalek 5y ago
    > US [...] people who have chosen not to get vaccinated This is very true. However, I do know an otherwise reasonable American who was convicted not to vaccinate by her recent significant other. My family in South Africa, who are still in early-ish days of vaccination, have many friends who have listened to unvaccinated Americans. The kind of truth in this study can easily be misused to tell a lie. It doesn't hurt to add a footnote of reason.

Imnimo 5y ago

I think the reason for this sort of response is that people are worried (and reasonably so, in my opinion), that people will say, "I'm pretty sure I had covid back in February of 2020 so I don't need the vaccine!"

angelzen 5y ago
First news item in a quick google search: "Cheap covid-19 antibody test shows if you have immunity in 5 minutes". Perhaps stop treating people like children that need to be lied to by omission 'for the common good'? https://www.newscientist.com/article/2290120-cheap-covid-19-antibody-test-shows-if-you-have-immunity-in-5-minutes https://www.newscientist.com/article/2290120-cheap-covid-19-...
- Imnimo 5y ago
  I don't think the original commenter here is lying by omission, they're adding additional context - that even if you have natural immunity, you still benefit from getting vaccinated.
- moistly 5y ago
  Antibodies are not produced forever and do not hang around for more than a few months. If you think you had covid last year you’re S.O.L. on the antibody testing front, because those antibodies are loooong gone.
  - guytpearson1 5y ago
    Your comment is not true.
    - moistly 5y ago
      It absolutely is true. Antibody production declines at an exponential rate(1). You don’t lose your immune response quickly, because T-cells and the like “remember” the virus—but your body doesn’t waste energy producing antibodies forever when there is no active need to have them around. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2025179 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2025179 Late edit: if you think you’ve lived through a sars-cov-2 infection, get it in writing within a few months.
      - angelzen 5y ago
        This confuses false negatives with true positives. If someone can produce a positive antibody test, it means they had covid, period. As such, they don't need the vaccine. The credibility problem arises when people are so gungho into pushing vaccines onto everyone, whether they need it or not, that they willfully ignore any possible alternative.
- joe_guy 5y ago
  That test has not begun clinical trials. I'm not sure why it's relevant to the discussion.

pacerwpg 5y ago

It's not that the information itself is threatening, but people will use the information in a destructive manner. I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that people will likely die from people saying that people don't need to get vaccinated because people will say natural immunity is 'better'. More context is almost always better.

LurkingPenguin 5y ago
> I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that people will likely die from people saying that people don't need to get vaccinated because people will say natural immunity is 'better'. In the US at least, vaccines have been widely available for months. You can literally get an appointment same day to receive the vaccine of your choice. 180 million people -- half the population -- are fully vaccinated. I don't think it's a stretch to conclude that at this point the people who have chosen not to get vaccinated are not going to be easily swayed. All of these people either a) know that COVID can be deadly and have decided to accept the risk, b) are so concerned/fearful about the vaccines that they will not consider them an option or c) are so crazy that no scientific data will influence their thinking. In this context, the "but if you get COVID you could die" responses that seem to be quickly posted every single time there's a study about the strength and durability of natural immunity are just strange to me.
- zamalek 5y ago
  > US [...] people who have chosen not to get vaccinated This is very true. However, I do know an otherwise reasonable American who was convicted not to vaccinate by her recent significant other. My family in South Africa, who are still in early-ish days of vaccination, have many friends who have listened to unvaccinated Americans. The kind of truth in this study can easily be misused to tell a lie. It doesn't hurt to add a footnote of reason.