New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health officials in California and New York indicates that a prior case of Covid-19 protected people from infection better than vaccinations did during the delta wave last summer and fall.
The findings, published Wednesday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, appear to contradict public health messaging that pushes vaccinations.
But experts maintain that the shots remain the safest way to protect against the most dire consequences of Covid. Even during the height of the delta wave last summer, virtually all hospitalized Covid patients were unvaccinated.
“Vaccines continue to reduce a person’s risk of contracting the virus that causes Covid-19 and are highly effective at preventing severe illness,” Benjamin Silk, one of the study’s authors and an infectious diseases epidemiologist at the CDC, said during a call with reporters Wednesday.
The new research is based on analyses of Covid infections among more than 1.1 million adults in California and New York from May to November last year.
Read more at NBC News.