Arguing for people who choose not to be vaccinated, a Johns Hopkins professor estimates that nearly half the country has natural immunity due to prior infection that protects them from COVID-19.
Dr. Marty Makary, in an interview Tuesday with “The Vince Coglianese Show” on WMAL in Washington, claimed the United States already has achieved the objective of herd immunity, combining the vaccinated with those who have been infected. He estimates 85% of the population is immune to the novel coronavirus.
“Please, ignore the CDC guidance,” he said, calling it the slowest “most reactionary CDC in history.”
“Live a normal life, unless you are unvaccinated and did not have the infection, in which case you need to be careful,” he said in the interview, which was spotlighted by the Daily Caller.
“We’ve got to start respecting people who choose not to get the vaccine instead of demonizing them,” Makary said.
White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci recently told Business Insider vaccines are “better than the traditional response you get from natural infection.” And last week, the Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory saying the same.
But that’s contradicted by empirical study data, Yale University epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch told WND.
He pointed to a massive study in Israel finding that people who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the previous three or more months had at least as much protection against new infection, hospitalization and death as vaccinated people.
“People become immune by surviving infection,” argued Risch, professor of epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine.
In an email to WND, he explained that serum antibodies and T-cell antibodies – the white blood cells that attack infections – demonstrate past history of infection.
Risch said the FDA is correct that antibodies from infection are not the same as post-vaccination antibodies. But this is irrelevant, he contended.
“These natural antibodies are proof of past infection,” said Risch. “Past infection is extremely strong evidence of immunity.”
‘We are not seeing reinfections’
Makary believes that both immunity through vaccination and through infection are probably “life-long” and can be maintained without boosters.
“There is more data on natural immunity than there is on vaccinated immunity, because natural immunity has been around longer,” Makary said. “We are not seeing reinfections, and when they do happen, they’re rare. Their symptoms are mild or are asymptomatic.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday he will not get vaccinated against COVID-19 because he already has immunity through infection.
“Until they show me evidence that people who have already had the infection are dying in large numbers or being hospitalized or getting very sick, I just made my own personal decision that I’m not getting vaccinated, because I’ve already had the disease and I have natural immunity,” Paul said in an interview Sunday with John Catsimatidis on WABC radio.
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