Coronavirus: Thread

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Sat May 13 13:25:57 PDT 2023


Cunt Walensky resigned.


US Failure To Recognize Natural Immunity Negatively Affected Pandemic
Response: NIH Scientist

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times

The failure to recognize how post-infection immunity is similar or
superior to that bestowed by vaccination led to prolonged school
closures and other problems, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)
scientist told Congress on May 11.
Undated colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (blue)
heavily infected with COVID-19 particles (red), isolated from a
patient sample at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort
Detrick, Md., on Oct. 31, 2020. (NIAID)

U.S. health agencies “chose to disregard natural immunity,” leading to
“lost jobs, staffing shortages, children kept out of school, and
wasted vaccines,” said Margery Smelkinson, a research scientist at the
NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Smelkinson was one of three experts testifying to the U.S. House of
Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in
Washington on Capitol Hill, in a hearing on immunity during the
pandemic.

Smelkinson, who said she was testifying in her personal capacity, is
employed by the same agency headed for decades by Dr. Anthony Fauci,
who repeatedly downplayed natural immunity along with other top public
health officials.

Fauci and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were among the officials to meet
secretly in 2021 to decide whether post-infection immunity should
count as one or more vaccine doses in the recommended COVID-19
vaccination schedule, according to documents obtained by The Epoch
Times. The meeting resulted in no changes to the recommendations,
which advise virtually all Americans to get a vaccine even if they’ve
recovered from COVID-19.

The government’s position on natural immunity meant that COVID-19
vaccine mandates across the country featured no exceptions for the
naturally immune, in contrast to some other countries.

The CDC has said that there is post-infection protection but that it
varies by person, that it’s unclear how long it lasts, and that
recovered people should still get vaccinated.

But evidence from before the vaccines were even available signaled
natural immunity was robust, and later studies provided evidence that
natural immunity was similar to or even better than vaccination,
Smelkinson noted.

One study in July 2020, for instance, found a strong immune response
in people who had recovered from COVID-19. Another in October 2020
provided similar findings. And a paper in November 2020 found that
mild infections also triggered strong responses.

As early as April 2021, research suggested protection on par with that
from vaccines. A CDC study found natural immunity was better than
vaccination against the Delta variant, and a more recent CDC paper
provided the same conclusions for the Omicron strain. An analysis of
dozens of studies found that post-infection protection was similar to
or better than vaccination, depending on the strain.

Smelkinson said the government’s position resulted in staffing
shortages, including in the health care sector, and “caused needless
loss of life as vaccines were given to essential workers with natural
immunity instead of being prioritized for the elderly.”

“Additionally, the daily quarantine of thousands of students could
have been significantly reduced if districts had, at least, made
exceptions for students with natural immunity. At least,” she said.
“Disregarding the wealth of evidence of natural immunity led to missed
opportunities to implement policies that could have been more
effective and efficient in controlling the pandemic and limiting
collateral damage.”

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the panel, said that the
government should not have mandated vaccination for the naturally
immune.
Other Experts

Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, told the panel that the stance against natural immunity
adopted by Fauci and others didn’t make sense, pointing in part to
Fauci saying previously that people who recovered from influenza
didn’t need vaccination “because the most potent vaccination is
getting infected yourself.”

Read more here...


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