COVID-19 vaccines are better in terms of protection than so-called natural immunity, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study. Researchers with the health agency used data from a CDC-funded network of hospitals and attempted to estimate the odds of contracting COVID-19. They formed two groups: one with people who had been fully vaccinated with no documentation of previous COVID-19 infection and one with people who had not received a vaccine but had recovered from the disease. Both groups met the criteria if they tested positive for COVID-19, were hospitalized with a COVID-19-like illness between January and September, and were 18 or older. Researchers said the unvaccinated with natural immunity, or previous infection, were 5.4 times as likely to contract COVID-19, though that figure dropped to 2.5 times among those 18 and 64 and was nearly 20 times among those 65 and older. The adjusted odds …