A member of congress who has previously shared anti-vaccine rhetoric and COVID-19 conspiracy theories has taken to social media to express opposition to vaccine mandates based on the findings of a recent study that has not yet undergone peer review. The study used COVID-19 vaccination data from the Mayo Clinic Health System for the first half of the year and found that Moderna and Pfizer vaccines offer robust protection against severe illness and death but showed decreased effectiveness against Delta infection. Social media users are now arguing that mandating Pfizer vaccination is ineffective in slowing Delta’s spread, with some claiming the study makes boosters unnecessary and natural immunity provides superior protection against Delta. In fact, the current scientific consensus is that the opposite is true. Although Delta appears to diminish the effectiveness of the vaccines, vaccinated people are still far less likely than unvaccinated people to contract the variant. Even among people who have previously had COVID-19, being unvaccinated made them more than twice as likely to contract COVID-19. Boosters given at eight months have been shown to boost immunity and increase protection against all COVID-19 variants.
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