Dr. Anthony Fauci said he does not have a "firm answer" about a study implying that naturally acquired immunity is more effective than vaccines at preventing you from reacquiring COVID-19. CNN's Sanjay Gupta asked if people who have already recovered from COVID-19 should still be required to get the vaccine. "I don't have a really firm answer for you on that," he said Thursday on CNN. "I think that is something that we need to sit down and discuss seriously." <blockquote>GUPTA: And just real quickly, there was a study that came out of Israel about natural immunity, and basically, the headline was that natural immunity provides a lot of protection, even better than the vaccines alone. What do people make of that? So as we talk about vaccine mandates, I get calls all the time, people say, I've already had COVID, I'm protected. And now the study says maybe even more protected than the vaccine alone. Should they also get the vaccine? How do you make the case to them? FAUCI: You know, that's a really good point, Sanjay. I don't have a really firm answer for you on that. That's something that we're going to have to discuss regarding the durability of the response. The one thing that paper from Israel didn't tell you is whether or not as high as the protection is with natural infection, what's the durability compared to the durability of a vaccine? So it is conceivable that you got infected, you're protected, but you may not be protected for an indefinite period of time. So, I think that is something that we need to sit down and discuss seriously, because you very appropriately pointed out, it is an issue, and there could be an argument for saying what you said.</blockquote>