Why do some people think that natural immunity provides life-long protection and better protection than vaccine induced immunity?
The usual suspects…
Does Natural Immunity Provide Life-Long Protection?
It is not true that natural immunity often provides life-long protection and better protection than vaccines.
For one thing, there are many diseases for which a natural infection doesn’t even provide long term immunity, including:
- diphtheria – 5 to 10% of patients who survive having diphtheria still have the C. diphtheriae bacteria in their nasopharynx and so are at risk for a second attack if they aren’t vaccinated
- tetanus – you don’t develop natural immunity after having tetanus – if you survive
- pertussis – natural pertussis infections do not provide life-long immunity, with studies showing antibody levels falling to pre-infection levels within as few as 4 years after a natural infection!
- rabies – no one usually survives having rabies without getting post-exposure prophylaxis, including rabies immune globulin and a series of rabies vaccines
And for many other diseases, since they have multiple strains and serotypes, technically, you would have to get sick multiple times to really have natural immunity against the disease.
Take polio for example.
Traditionally, polio has been caused by three different types of wild poliovirus (WPV): type 1, type 2 (now eradicated), and type 3.
While getting vaccinated protects you against all three types, you would have to get sick with and survive having all three strains to develop natural immunity.
Other vaccines protect you against even more strains!
Remember, we have:
- the HPV vaccine – protects against 9 strains of the human papillomavirus
- the pneumococcal vaccines – protect against 15 or 20 strains of pneumococcal bacteria
- the meningococcal vaccines – protect against 5 strains of meningococcal bacteria
- flu vaccines – protect against 3 or 4 strains of flu each year
- COVID vaccines – protect against the newest strains
Think about it – do you really want to get meningococcemia more than once?
You could if you are relying on the natural immunity model…
And while you probably don’t really remember what it was like in the pre-vaccine era, when all of these diseases were common, ignore those who try to romanticize how great it was to have measles, chicken pox, rubella, and other now vaccine-preventable diseases.
There is a reason they called measles a harmless killer…
More on Vaccine-Induced Immunity
- How Do You Remember Vaccine Preventable Diseases?
- How Many Lives Has the MMR Vaccine Saved?
- Where Are the Latest Diphtheria Outbreaks?
- Is It Reasonable to Want Your Kids to Get a Vaccine-Preventable Disease?
- “Natural immunity” versus the vaccine for COVID-19
- The horrible consequences of seeking “natural” immunity: Naturopathy and Whooping Cough
- The suffering the search for “natural immunity” inflicts on children
- Vaccination is better than natural immunity
- Immunity through Covid infection is much riskier than a vaccine
- Already Had COVID-19? Vaccines Boost Immunity, Not ‘Wipe Out’ Antibodies
- ‘Natural immunity’ to COVID has its limits
- Homeopathic Vaccines Are Not Vaccines
- Duration of immunity against pertussis after natural infection or vaccination