It’s time for the CDC to wake up and face reality, a medically oriented faction of conservative Republicans declare. They sent a nasty letter off to Director Rochelle Walensky demanding she at least acknowledge that “natural immunity” to COVID-19 really does happen. No shot required.
CDC ignores the science
Pretending it doesn’t happen only makes what the CDC is doing seem like even more of a political power grab. Thats why this group of Republican conservatives, “with health care-related credentials,” put together a sharply worded letter.
Once they had it finely tuned for maximum effect, they sent it off to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, demanding Rochelle Walensky at least “acknowledge natural immunity within the context of COVID-19.”
“We appreciate your efforts at the CDC in providing vaccine recommendations to fight the COVID-19 pandemic,” the letter opens politely, before lunging toward the director’s jugular. “As members of the Doctors Caucus, we applaud vaccines’ role in preventing infectious diseases such as polio and measles, and now COVID-19. However, we must also acknowledge the need to develop patient-centered solutions that evidence medical necessity.”
What that says in English is “yes, vaccines help but don’t work for everybody.” Not only that, not everybody needs one. Folks who catch the crud and live through it are better prepared the next time they encounter the same virus or a variant.
According to the congressional conservatives, the medical experts are bowing down to pressure from the palace and ignoring the science for purely political reasons. “To this end, we strongly urge the CDC to acknowledge infection-acquired immunity in addition to vaccine-acquired immunity.”
The Republicans insist that up until now, natural immunity “has been dismissed without adequate scientific acknowledgment” while the so-called experts “continue to ignore scientific evidence when making policies to achieve herd immunity.”
Lower risk of reinfection
Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. of Kansas was first of 14 caucus lawmakers to sign off on the CDC letter including heavy hitters like Senator Rand Paul, Rep. Brian Babin, and Rep. Diana Harshbarger. “Examining patient populations across the world, some studies have found that natural immunity provided a lower risk of reinfection,” they argue. They have data to back it up, too.
Newly “released data from Israel shows that people who once had COVID-19 were much less likely than never-infected, vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.”
The study indicates that one or more doses of a vaccine on top of being infected provide even more “protection against the Delta variant.” The difference is attributed to the individuals own “durable” immune response. Some people, they pointed out, “may not even need to get vaccinated” against COVID-19.
“It may be the case that it is not medically necessary for an individual to receive a vaccination. It may also be the case that a sufficient level of protection may be produced from one dose.” The CDC doesn’t want to hear that for a single second.
“We urge the CDC to acknowledge natural immunity and work with other federal agencies to ensure all future guidance, policies, and federally-funded research take this evidence into account and build off it,” they urged.
It will be interesting to see if the idea goes anywhere or gets buried by the Deep State in layer upon layer of red tape and bureaucratic confusion.
