Vivek Saxena writes for the American Wire about an interesting new report from federal health officials.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has finally acknowledged a point that COVID dissenters have been making since at least the creation of the first coronavirus vaccine: Natural immunity counts.

A study published by the Biden CDC on Monday found that “persons with vaccine- and infection-derived immunity,” the latter of which is the agency’s term for natural immunity,  “had much lower rates of hospitalization compared with those in unvaccinated persons” during the study period.

Conducted in New York and California between May and November of 2021, the study also found that natural immunity offered even “greater” protection “after the highly transmissible Delta variant became predominant, coinciding with early declining of vaccine-induced immunity.”

In other words, when a new variant popped up and Americans who were only vaccinated began contracting the virus left and right, those with natural immunity fared, it would appear, best.

That said, prior to the emergence of the Delta variant, the vaccinated did reportedly hold the advantage.

The data shows specifically that during this earlier period of the pandemic in California, those with just vaccine immunity were 19.9 times less likely to contract the virus than the unvaccinated, while those with just natural immunity were just 7.2 times less likely.

But once Delta emerged, the rates flipped, with those Californians with just natural immunity being 29 times less likely, and those with just vaccine immunity being only 6.2 times less likely.

Despite this bombshell data, the Biden CDC still stresses that “vaccination remains the safest strategy for averting future SARS-CoV-2 infections, hospitalizations, long-term sequelae, and death.”

And therefore, its recommendations remain the same: “Primary vaccination, additional doses, and booster doses are recommended for all eligible persons. Additional future recommendations for vaccine doses might be warranted as the virus and immunity levels change.”