Pierce Health Explains How Vaccination Trumps Natural Immunity

PIERCE COUNTY, WA — The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is asking residents to get vaccinated, even if they have already caught COVID-19 and believe they have natural immunity against the coronavirus.

In a recent blog post from TPCHD's Jax Hermer, Hermer explains that natural immunity isn't understood well enough right now to guarantee protection against COVID-19.

"The natural immunity your body builds after fighting off a disease is great. But the level of protection—and how long you’re protected for—varies from person to person and disease to disease," writes Hermer. "We’re still learning about natural immunity to COVID-19."

The vaccines also are not 100 percent effective, as the health department notes, but they've been shown to prevent serious infections, hospitalizations and deaths in a majority of patients. In Pierce County, unvaccinated COVID-19 patients are ten times more likely to die of COVID-19 complications, the health department said.

Meanwhile, natural immunity is left with too many unknowns. TPCHD points to one recent study which found that more than one third of COVID-19 infections produced no protective antibodies at all. And in cases where patients did generate antibodies, immunity was found to fade in just two months.

Though improvements have been made over recent weeks, Pierce County continues to struggle with low vaccination rates, and as a result is dealing with higher case rates than many of its peers. According to the latest update from county's COVID-19 dashboard, the county's case rate is 536.3 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks, and just over one million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to Pierce County residents.

All that to say, the health department continues to urge everyone to get vaccinated, even if they already feel protected by natural immunity. After all, it's better to be safe than sorry.

"We know vaccination is the safest and most effective tool to keep you safe from the worst outcomes," Hermer said.

>> Read the full post on the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department's Reliable Source Blog.