On Oct. 29, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published “new science” reinforcing that vaccination is the best protection against COVID-19. In a MMWR examining more than 7,000 people across 9 states who were hospitalized with COVID-like illness, CDC found that those who were unvaccinated and had a recent infection were 5 times more likely to have COVID-19 than those who were recently fully vaccinated and did not have a prior infection.

The data demonstrated that vaccination can provide a higher, more robust, and more consistent level of immunity to protect people from hospitalization for COVID-19 than infection alone for at least 6 months.