My understanding of it is that given the choice between the vaccine and catching it on purpose - the vaccine, being controlled, is far safer.
The alternative is a bit of a lottery. The particular set of circumstances that triggers the very nasty immune response is poorly understood.
If you contract it on purpose, you will gain similar immunity to that the vaccine would give. Unless you get the nasty immune response, in which case you risk very serious complications, not least of which is death.
The problem is that with no antibodies, its hard to predict what our immune systems will do. Some will go way overboard, leading to problems.
The vaccine, being made in a test tube is designed to strengthen out immune systems in a very specific way, against a particular component of the virus.
Apologies if this is rather incoherent, I've been awake for far too long.
16-Jan-2021 13:39:46