A new study found that a previous COVID-19 infection offers at least the same level of protection as two doses of high-quality mRNA vaccines, such as Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Additionally, people who are infected with the virus may be protected from reinfection for 40 weeks or longer, the study found.
It was published in The Lancet on Feb. 16.
Protection from reinfection was highest for the ancestral (original) strain of COVID-19 and the alpha, beta and delta variants, remaining at more than 78% after 40 weeks.
Protection was lower for the omicron BA.1 variant, which dropped to 36.1% in that same time frame.
