I'm pro-vaccine in a very general sense, but studies show that a previous infection is marginally better than getting the vaccine in staving off re-infections.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....01.21258176v1
Summary: Cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was examined among 52238 employees in an American healthcare system. COVID-19 did not occur in anyone over the five months of the study among 2579 individuals previously infected with COVID-19, including 1359 who did not take the vaccine.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...92867420310084
Summary: SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells were detectable in antibody-seronegative exposed family members and convalescent individuals with a history of asymptomatic and mild COVID-19. Our collective dataset shows that SARS-CoV-2 elicits broadly directed and functionally replete memory T cell responses, suggesting that natural exposure or infection may prevent recurrent episodes of severe COVID-19.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....20.21255670v1
Summary: Vaccination was highly effective with overall estimated efficacy for documented infection of 92·8% (CI:[92·6, 93·0]); hospitalization 94·2% (CI:[93·6, 94·7]); severe illness 94·4% (CI:[93·6, 95·0]); and death 93·7% (CI:[92·5, 94·7]). Similarly, the overall estimated level of protection from prior SARS-CoV-2 infection for documented infection is 94·8% (CI:[94·4, 95·1]); hospitalization 94·1% (CI:[91·9, 95·7]); and severe illness 96·4% (CI:[92·5, 98·3]). Our results question the need to vaccinate previously-infected individuals.
The occurrence of side effects due to the vaccine are small, but are the risks worth it when considering the data on previous infections and how mild COVID typically is?
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/...s-202107012523
Summary: Currently, about 1,000 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported after vaccination against COVID-19 with one of the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna. The cases have been most common in male adolescents and young adults, occurring most often after the second dose, and usually within several days of receiving the vaccine. The majority of cases have been mild. Experts are still gathering information, but as of this writing, 79% of teens and young adults who experienced this had recovered.
EDIT: Since I know folks are going to bring up the Delta variant,
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....28.21258025v1
Me Paraphrasing Instead of Quoting Actual Summary: Memory B Cells will react much quicker to variants of the original virus after infection/vaccination.
I am not arguing against vaccinations. The risk/reward has to be weighed for each individual, and for me I don't believe it's worth the risk since I've already had COVID.