Health officials downplayed data on natural immunity, misrepresented study, never updated findings
- August 16, 2025
Steven Richards, Just the News
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in August 2021 that vaccines offered greater protection than a previous COVID-19 infection, officials cited a study that never included any such conclusion.
In fact, the study that CDC guidance was based upon only focused on the effects of vaccination following a COVID-19 infection, meaning in those that had already developed antibodies to the virus. Instead, the CDC touted it as data supporting vaccination without mentioning prior infections, a serious flaw in medical “science.”
Nonetheless, the message that vaccines provided superior protection became a common refrain regarding all protection from COVID. Newly released documents from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit show that documents reveal that senior health officials received new information shortly after their August 2021 declaration about an early pandemic study from Israel that came to an entirely different conclusion.
That study presented data showing that natural immunity from a previous infection might be a longer-lasting protection against reinfection with COVID-19 than vaccination. Yet, it was not included in any updated public messaging: the necessity of vaccination became the law of the land in many regards, whether for those previously infected or not.
Communications between senior officials responsible for the pandemic response were obtained by watchdog organization Protect the Public’s Trust through a FOIA request. The documents produced under the law show a focus on internal discussions about an Israeli vaccine study that contradicts claims the health agency made earlier that month about the results of a similar U.S.-based study. Both studies addressed positive aspects of natural immunity as a health approach.
And yet, both “natural immunity” studies were buried.