In the United States, everyone, 16 years of age and older, is now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. HealthCare.gov, the agency behind the Affordable Care Act, recently sent out an email announcing the “good news.” They said the new shot was “an important tool to help end the pandemic, and it’s your best protection from getting COVID-19.” But is it really the best? An alternative form of immune security hardly gets any attention, but it may have benefits that any one of the COVID shots now available under emergency use authorization do not. And many of us may already carry this protection, no shot required. Natural immunity (the inborn process of catching a virus and recovering from it) has been common knowledge for many years. The process has also shown to produce significant antibody protection against COVID-19. According to research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published …