Arguing he already has immunity through infection, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday he will not get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“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 his radio show on WABC 770 AM, The Hill reported.
In March 2020, Paul became the first known senator to have contracted the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people who have recovered from COVID-19 get vaccinated because health experts don’t know how long natural immunity lasts.
But Paul, an ophthalmologist, said he won’t get vaccinated unless he sees evidence that immunity from the vaccine is better than natural immunity.
Paul told Catsimatidis that in “a free country, you would think people would honor the idea that each individual would get to make the medical decision, that it wouldn’t be a big brother coming to tell me what I have to do.
“Are they also going to tell me I can’t have a cheeseburger for lunch? Are they going to tell me that I have to eat carrots only and cut my calories?” Paul continued. “All that would probably be good for me, but I don’t think big brother ought to tell me to do it.”
Last week, as WND reported, the Food and Drug Administration issued guidance stating a vaccine is still needed to confirm immunity from the COVID-19 virus. The FDA said that antibodies provided by the vaccines are superior to the antibodies developed from being infected by the virus, providing needed protection that the regular antibodies do not.
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.”
Meawhile, the CDC said it’s investigating reports of a “relatively few” number of young adults and adolescents who may have experienced heart problems following a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Most cases appear to be mild,” but the COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Technical Work Group said the issue needed to be communicated to providers. The mRNA vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are potentially causing the problem, the CDC said.
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