GOP embraces natural immunity as sub for shot
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — Republicans fighting President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandates are wielding a new weapon against White House rules: natural immunity.
They contend that people who have recovered from the virus have enough immunity and antibodies to not need COVID-19 vaccines, and the concept has been invoked by Republicans as a sort of stand-in for vaccines.
Florida wrote natural immunity into state law this week as GOP lawmakers else- where are pushing similar measures to sidestep vaccine mandates. Lawsuits over the mandates have also begun leaning on the idea.
Scientists acknowledge people previously infected with COVID have some level of immunity but vaccines offer a more consistent level of protection. Natural immunity is also far from a one-size-fitsall scenario, making it com- plicated to enact sweeping exemptions to vaccines.
That’s because how much immunity COVID-19 survivors have depends on how long ago they were infected, how sick they were, and if the virus variant they had is different from mutants circulating now. For example, a person who had a minor case one year ago is much different than a person who had a severe case over the summer when the delta vari- ant was raging through the country. It’s also difficult to reliably test whether some- one is protected from future infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion reported in August that COVID-19 survivors who ignored advice to get vaccinated were more than twice as likely to get infected again. A more recent study from the CDC, looking at data from nine states, nearly determined 190 hospitals that in unvaccinated people who had been infected months earlier were five times more likely to get COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people who didn’t have a prior infection.
“Infection with this virus, if you survive, you do have some level of protection against getting infected in the future and particularly against getting serious infec- tion in the future,” said Dr. David Dowdy of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It’s important to note though that even those who have been infected in the past get additional protec- tion from being vaccinated.”
Studies also show that COVID-19 survivors who get vaccinated develop extra- strong protection, what’s called “hybrid immunity.” When previously infected person gets a coronavirus vaccine, the shot acts like a booster and revs virus-fighting antibodies to high levels. The combination also strength- ens another defensive layer of the immune system, help- ing create new antibodies that stand comes riencing infections tions unvaccinated that 770,000 hoping because dates The are has and set future as more immunity more Americans. of the to killed 60 another and workplace take country million variants. get in likely hospitaliza- a more effect vaccinated pandemic surge debate to Biden remain is expe- man- with- early than in is next many eager embraced immunity And year challenges to many buck from the but argument Republicans earlier Biden in which the courts. infec- have face that tions earn mandates. an should exemption be enough from the to you federal “We see recognize, proposed going on unlike mandates with what the and ally other doing states, a science-based we’re actu- approach. recognize people For example, that have we natural immunity,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Repub- lican who has been a chief critic of virus rules, said at a signing ceremony for sweep- ing legislation to hobble vaccine mandates this week.