Altarawneh et al.: "Effects of Previous Infection and Vaccination on Symptomatic Omicron Infections"; another win for natural immunity showing it's potency

What we see is that prior infection (natural immunity) is more robust and durable than with 2nd or 3rd shot; we see NEGATIVE effectiveness of the 2 dose, and decline of 2nd and 3rd dose...

“Previous infection alone, BNT162b2 vaccination alone, and hybrid immunity all showed strong effectiveness (>70%) against severe, critical, or fatal Covid-19 due to BA.2 infection. Similar results were observed in analyses of effectiveness against BA.1 infection and of vaccination with mRNA-1273. No discernable differences in protection against symptomatic BA.1 and BA.2 infection were seen with previous infection, vaccination, and hybrid immunity.”

SOURCE:

Effects of Previous Infection and Vaccination on Symptomatic Omicron Infections, Altarawneh, 2022

See Figure 3

The analysis of the effectiveness of previous infection, two-dose vaccination, and three-dose vaccination as a function of time since the immunologic event (previous infection or vaccination) showed rapidly waning vaccine protection after the second and third doses but slowly waning protection from previous infection (Figure 3).

“A national, matched, test-negative, case–control study in Qatar from December 23, 2021, through February 21, 2022, to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccination with BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) or mRNA-1273 (Moderna), natural immunity due to previous infection with variants other than omicron, and hybrid immunity (previous infection and vaccination) against symptomatic omicron infection and against severe, critical, or fatal coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). 

The effectiveness of previous infection alone against symptomatic BA.2 infection was 46.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 39.5 to 51.9). The effectiveness of vaccination with two doses of BNT162b2 and no previous infection was negligible (−1.1%; 95% CI, −7.1 to 4.6), but nearly all persons had received their second dose more than 6 months earlier. The effectiveness of three doses of BNT162b2 and no previous infection was 52.2% (95% CI, 48.1 to 55.9). The effectiveness of previous infection and two doses of BNT162b2 was 55.1% (95% CI, 50.9 to 58.9), and the effectiveness of previous infection and three doses of BNT162b2 was 77.3% (95% CI, 72.4 to 81.4).