Hold the Phone — Doc’s Thoughts:
I have people asking me all the time about natural immunity. Whether they are looking for information for themselves or to take to family and friends who are discrediting the validity. The argument regarding natural immunity continues to be a hot topic. Here, we’ve compiled a list of 140 studies currently available on the robust, durable protection of natural immunity from around the world by hundreds of scientists, researchers and doctors.
In many countries natural immunity is recognized, at least in some part, as a valid reason to refrain from a COVID vaccine. Here in the U.S., many people facing mandates are unable to use their natural immunity as a justified reason to pass on the vaccine. In fact, it’s almost as if we’d never encountered natural immunity before. Which is odd considering vaccines are developed to mimic the natural immune response.
Several studies, as well as the CDC and other governmental agencies around the world, have come out to say that the immune response induced by the COVID vaccines wanes rather quickly. This is the justification and reason that warrants the need for boosters after just 6 months.
Those who choose to argue that natural immunity may not be suitable, argue that we don’t have long term studies. In fact, we have several studies. Well done studies that indicate that natural immunity is not only robust, but also far superior to the vaccine-induced immune response. So far, as we see vaccine-induced immune responses waning, we’ve yet to see one where natural immunity wanes nearly as quickly.
As concerns continue to mount for ADE, myocarditis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, blood clots, nervous system disorders and a whole host of other conditions in the growing number of VAERS reports, elicited by the vaccines, we need to take a serious look at natural immunity.
While we wait for long-term studies on the vaccines to be conducted and reported on, we have these at our fingertips. If the FDA continues to push for 55, and now doubled-down for 75 years to release the data that led them to an EUA approval, we can use this information in the meantime to make an informed decision.
Some people are still arguing the side that a vaccine will stop transmission. Does this apply to those with natural immunity as some would argue? The CDC recently stated that they have 0 incidences recorded where an unvaccinated individual has been infected with COVID, recovered, become reinfected and transmitted the virus to another person. There is no evidence of a naturally recovered person transmitting COVID after reinfection. Breakthrough cases are quite another story. We have evidence of large spread transmission through breakthrough cases.
Now, as children are receiving these vaccinations, many of whom likely have natural immunity due to such mild cases that went undetected, we need to consider the implications of vaccinating someone with natural immunity. Especially since we have no long term studies and the FDA recognizes the children receiving the vaccine today are the long term trial participants.
While some of these studies continue to argue for the need for vaccination, I think if you read the studies with a critical thought, you’ll see that they actually validate natural immunity. Even if their intent was to endorse the vaccine.
There is a lot of information here. We’ve worked to break it down into three categories: the protection natural immunity plays in reinfection, the question of whether naturally recovered should consider the vaccine for additional protection, and a deeper dive into the immune response for those ready for even more information.
If you want to know how your immune response is functioning, we can help. At The Wellness Way, we can help you test your immune response to various challenges. Don’t just guess, test that system so that you can have the confidence you need to handle not only the hard discussions, but also your own health.
Studies Validating Natural Immunity:
Reinfection and Protection
The below studies demonstrate the long-term, broad protection elicited by natural immunity. While some studies set out to understand the defense the vaccines offered, they revealed even more support for natural immunity.
The longitudinal kinetics of antibodies in COVID-19 recovered patients over 14 months, Eyran, 2020
Natural infection vs vaccination: Which gives more protection?, Rosenberg, 2021
Protective immunity after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection, Kojima, 2021
This ‘super antibody’ for COVID fights off multiple coronaviruses, Kwon, 2021
Prior COVID-19 protects against reinfection, even in the absence of detectable antibodies, Breatnach, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 re-infection risk in Austria, Pilz, 2021
Good news: Mild COVID-19 induces lasting antibody protection, Bhandari, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 elicits robust adaptive immune responses regardless of disease severity, Nielsen, 2021
Robust neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 infection persist for months, Wajnberg, 2021
Persistence of neutralizing antibodies a year after SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans, Haveri, 2021
Quantifying the risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 reinfection over time, Murchu, 2021
Natural immunity to covid is powerful. Policymakers seem afraid to say so, Makary, 2021
Immunity to COVID-19 in India through vaccination and natural infection, Sarraf, 2021
Functional SARS-CoV-2-Specific Immune Memory Persists after Mild COVID-19, Rodda, 2021
Asymptomatic or mild symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection elicits durable neutralizing antibody responses in children and adolescents, Garrido, 2021
Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 are associated with protection against reinfection, Lumley, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positivity protects against reinfection for at least seven months with 95% efficacy, Abu-Raddad, 2021
Researchers find long-lived immunity to 1918 pandemic virus, CIDRAP, 2008
NATURE journal publication, Yu, 2008
Op-Ed: Quit Ignoring Natural COVID Immunity, Klausner, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity and subsequent infection risk in healthy young adults: a prospective cohort study, Letizia, 2021
Lasting immunity found after recovery from COVID-19, NIH, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 Natural Antibody Response Persists for at Least 12 Months in a Nationwide Study From the Faroe Islands, Petersen, 2021
COVID-19 natural immunity, WHO, 2021
Humoral Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 in Iceland, Gudbjartsson, 2020
Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection, Dan, 2021
Reinfection Rates among Patients who Previously Tested Positive for COVID-19: a Retrospective Cohort Study, Sheehan, 2021
Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection 1 Year After Primary Infection in a Population in Lombardy, Italy, Vitale, 2020
Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with protection against symptomatic reinfection, Hanrath, 2021
NIH Director’s Blog: Immune T Cells May Offer Lasting Protection Against COVID-19, Collins, 2021
Ultrapotent antibodies against diverse and highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants, Wang, 2021
Decrease in Measles Virus-Specific CD4 T Cell Memory in Vaccinated Subjects, Naniche, 2004
Longitudinal observation of antibody responses for 14 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, Dehgani-Mobaraki, 2021
Had COVID? You’ll probably make antibodies for a lifetime, Callaway, 2021
Assessment of protection against reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 among 4 million PCR-tested individuals in Denmark in 2020: a population-level observational study, Holm Hansen, 2021
Robust T Cell Immunity in Convalescent Individuals with Asymptomatic or Mild COVID-19, Sekine, 2020
Karl Friston: up to 80% not even susceptible to Covid-19, Sayers, 2020
ChAdOx1nCoV-19 effectiveness during an unprecedented surge in SARS CoV-2 infections, Satwik, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells and antibodies in COVID-19 protection: a prospective study, Molodtsov, 2021
A Systematic Review of the Protective Effect of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Repeat Infection, Kojima, 2021
Seven-month kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and role of pre-existing antibodies to human coronaviruses, Ortega, 2021
Immunodominant T-cell epitopes from the SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen reveal robust pre-existing T-cell immunity in unexposed individuals, Mahajan, 2021
Memory T cell responses targeting the SARS coronavirus persist up to 11 years post-infection., Ng, 2016
Adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, Sette, 2021
Naturally Acquired SARS-CoV-2 Immunity Persists for Up to 11 Months Following Infection, De Giorgi, 2021
Decreasing Seroprevalence of Measles Antibodies after Vaccination – Possible Gap in Measles Protection in Adults in the Czech Republic, Smetana, 2017
Reinfection With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Patients Undergoing Serial Laboratory Testing, Qureshi, 2021
Covid-19: Do many people have pre-existing immunity? Doshi, 2020
Pre-existing and de novo humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in humans, Ng, 2020
Pre-existing immunity to SARS-CoV-2: the knowns and unknowns, Sette, 2020
No one is naive: the significance of heterologous T-cell immunity, Welsh, 2002
Intrafamilial Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 Induces Cellular Immune Response without Seroconversion, Gallais, 2020
Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections, Abu-Raddad, 2021
Assessment of the Risk of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Reinfection in an Intense Re-exposure Setting, Abu-Raddad, 2021
Increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 Beta, Gamma, and Delta variant compared to Alpha variant in vaccinated individuals, Andeweg, 2021
Is the Vaccine Necessary for Those Who’ve Recovered?
Many argue that a dose may be necessary for people who’ve been previously infected. The science doesn’t support that. In fact, many respected researchers including the esteemed Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and editor in chief of MedPage Today indicated this thinking is illogical and misplaced.
Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals, Shrestha, 2021
Differential antibody dynamics to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination, Chen, 2021
Protection of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is similar to that of BNT162b2 vaccine protection: A three-month nationwide experience from Israel, Goldberg, 2021
Incidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 infection among previously infected or vaccinated employees, Kojima, 2021
Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections, Gazit, 2021
Having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccine—but vaccination remains vital, Wadman, 2021
Large-scale study of antibody titer decay following BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine or SARS-CoV-2 infection, Israel, 2021
Anti-spike antibody response to natural SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population, Wei, 2021
Differential effects of the second SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine dose on T cell immunity in naïve and COVID-19 recovered individuals, Camara, 2021
Antibody Evolution after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination, Cho, 2021
Why COVID-19 Vaccines Should Not Be Required for All Americans, Makary, 2021
Naturally enhanced neutralizing breadth against SARS-CoV-2 one year after infection, Wang, 2021
A population-based analysis of the longevity of SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity in the United States, Alfego, 2021
Durable SARS-CoV-2 B cell immunity after mild or severe disease, Ogega, 2021
Protection and waning of natural and hybrid COVID-19 immunity, Goldberg, 2021
Immunity Protection and Response
This section is dedicated to those interested in taking a deep dive into the immune system and its many functioning mechanisms. We can’t simply focus on antibodies. The immune system is far more complex and intricate.
SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity in cases of COVID-19 and SARS, and uninfected controls, Le Bert, 2020
Highly functional virus-specific cellular immune response in asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, Le Bert, 2021
Evolution of Antibody Immunity to SARS-CoV-2, Gaebler, 2020
One-year sustained cellular and humoral immunities of COVID-19 convalescents, Zhang, 2021
Discrete Immune Response Signature to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination Versus Infection, Ivanova, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans, Turner, 2021
Pandemic peak SARS-CoV-2 infection and seroconversion rates in London frontline health-care workers, Houlihan, 2020
Single cell profiling of T and B cell repertoires following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, Sureshchandra, 2021
Orthogonal SARS-CoV-2 Serological Assays Enable Surveillance of Low-Prevalence Communities and Reveal Durable Humoral Immunity, Ripperger, 2020
Association of SARS-CoV-2 Seropositive Antibody Test With Risk of Future Infection, Harvey, 2021
Associations of Vaccination and of Prior Infection With Positive PCR Test Results for SARS-CoV-2 in Airline Passengers Arriving in Qatar, Bertollini, 2021
Immune Memory in Mild COVID-19 Patients and Unexposed Donors Reveals Persistent T Cell Responses After SARS-CoV-2 Infection, Ansari, 2021
Targets of T Cell Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus in Humans with COVID-19 Disease and Unexposed Individuals, Grifoni, 2020
Remembrance of Things Past: Long-Term B Cell Memory After Infection and Vaccination, Palm, 2019
Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 generates T-cell memory in the absence of a detectable viral infection, Wang, 2021
CD8+ T-Cell Responses in COVID-19 Convalescent Individuals Target Conserved Epitopes From Multiple Prominent SARS-CoV-2 Circulating Variants, Redd, 2021and Lee, 2021
Exposure to common cold coronaviruses can teach the immune system to recognize SARS-CoV-2,La Jolla, Crotty and Sette, 2020
Selective and cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes in unexposed humans, Mateus, 2020
Humoral and circulating follicular helper T cell responses in recovered patients with COVID-19, Juno, 2020
Convergent antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in convalescent individuals, Robbiani, 2020
Rapid generation of durable B cell memory to SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins in COVID-19 and convalescence, Hartley, 2020
A majority of uninfected adults show preexisting antibody reactivity against SARS-CoV-2, Majdoubi, 2021
SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells in healthy donors and patients with COVID-19, Braun, 2020
Antigen-Specific Adaptive Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in Acute COVID-19 and Associations with Age and Disease Severity, Moderbacher, 2020
Detection of SARS-CoV-2-Specific Humoral and Cellular Immunity in COVID-19 Convalescent Individuals, Ni, 2020
Robust SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell immunity is maintained at 6 months following primary infection, Zuo, 2020
Negligible impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on CD4+ and CD8+ T cell reactivity in COVID-19 exposed donors and vaccinees, Tarke, 2021
What are the roles of antibodies versus a durable, high- quality T-cell response in protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2? Hellerstein, 2020
Broad and strong memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells induced by SARS-CoV-2 in UK convalescent COVID-19 patients, Peng, 2020
SARS-CoV-2 T-cell epitopes define heterologous and COVID-19 induced T-cell recognition, Nelde, 2020
CD8+ T cells specific for an immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid epitope cross-react with selective seasonal coronaviruses, Lineburg, 2021
Anti- SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Binding Domain Antibody Evolution after mRNA Vaccination, Cho, 2021
Not just antibodies: B cells and T cells mediate immunity to COVID-19, Cox, 2020
T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following natural infection and vaccination, DiPiazza, 2020
SARS-CoV-2–specific CD8+ T cell responses in convalescent COVID-19 individuals, Kared, 2021
S Protein-Reactive IgG and Memory B Cell Production after Human SARS-CoV-2 Infection Includes Broad Reactivity to the S2 Subunit, Nguyen-Contant, 2021
Broadly cross-reactive antibodies dominate the human B cell response against 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus infection, Wrammert, 2011
Phenotype of SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cells in COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, Weiskopf, 2020
Pre-existing immunity against swine-origin H1N1 influenza viruses in the general human population, Greenbaum, 2009
Cellular immune correlates of protection against symptomatic pandemic influenza, Sridhar, 2013
Preexisting influenza-specific CD4+ T cells correlate with disease protection against influenza challenge in humans, Wilkinson, 2012
Serum cross-reactive antibody response to a novel influenza A (H1N1) virus after vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine, CDC, MMWR, 2009
Evidence for sustained mucosal and systemic antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 antigens in COVID-19 patients, Isho, 2020
The T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2: kinetic and quantitative aspects and the case for their protective role, Bertoletti, 2021
T cell response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans: A systematic review, Shrotri, 2021
Antigen-Specific Adaptive Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in Acute COVID-19 and Associations with Age and Disease Severity, Moderbacker, 2020
