Covid-19 Immunity
an opinion based on facts and peer reviewed studies
1/14/2022
Our society is so charged up on following the opinions of people we like, people we believe, media outlets we individually trust, that we often overlook common sense and facts. I am not referring to whether or not someone wants to get the vaccine or their beliefs about it. I am going to discuss the greater understanding of logic, backed by studies, of how we know Covid-19 works and how our body fights it.
We know that our body fights off viruses by creating antibodies along with T cells. When you are infected with a virus like Covid-19, your body produces antibodies and T cells to protect you from catching the virus again, and to give you the tools to fight it if you do. The purpose of the rapidly developed and tested mRNA vaccines (Messenger RNA) is to teach our cells how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response inside our bodies to produce these antibodies and T cells. Like all vaccines, mRNA vaccines are to help people who get vaccinated by giving them protection against diseases like COVID-19 to hopefully mitigate the risk the potentially serious consequences of getting sick.
So, let’s look at what was said there. Both getting the virus and getting the mRNA vaccines are going to tell the body to produce antibodies. In the grand picture, they are technically doing the same thing. People like to call these antibodies in their system “immunity”. If you got these antibodies from catching Covid-19, they call it “natural immunity”. You may also have heard of the term “herd immunity”, where a large enough portion of a population has these antibodies and the virus has tremendous difficulty propagating.
A way to see if a person has these antibodies in their system has been developed and is readily available. This is called an antibody test. The CDC has put out a short video telling people how it works here: https://youtu.be/v8ITXt1Cfas and you can see it is based on a simple blood test. Anyone can go get this test and it costs well under $100 US. So, the question is… what is the difference in a person who is vaccinated and a person who has already had Covid-19 with respect to immunity? They both have the antibodies. Why is someone who got these antibodies through the vaccine able to go have dinner in a restaurant or visit a loved one in the hospital while someone who already had Covid-19 is banned from going into that restaurant or hospital without getting the vaccine?
To answer this, we can speculate from what we want to deduce from the facts, or we can look at studies from larger, respected and trusted entities like the National Institute of Health. The Cureus Journal of Medical Science1 published a study2 from PMC, the US National Laboratory of Medicine, NIH (National Institute of Health) on 10/21/2021 that concluded “Our systematic review showed no clear evidence that vaccinated COVID-naïve individuals enjoyed greater protection than unvaccinated COVID-recovered counterparts.“
So, in October of 2021, the National Institute of Health did a peer reviewed study that showed people with the vaccine and people who were already infected with Covid-19 have little difference in their protection from the Covid-19 virus and future infection and complications.
This being the case, why do we not have passports for the “naturally immune” like we do the vaccinated? You might think the answer simple, but it is not. Many want to speculate that it is a monetary issue based on greed. But that is purely speculation and opinion. Another opinion is that it is out of ignorance and peer pressure. But either way, the concept of an “immunity passport” as opposed to a “vaccination card” is not a new subject or idea. This concept was researched in depth at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
A study into allowing social freedom via a “passport” showing natural immunity, considering the feasibility and and moral responsibility of a publicly accepted immunity passport, has been discussed and debated in many publications and studies. An article in The Lancet Infectious Diseases3 said “failing to recognise the reduced infection threat immune individuals pose risks punishing people for low-risk behaviour.“
People are actually against the concept of an “immunity passport” because they think it is unfair to the people that already took the vaccine. Is this completely ludicrous to anyone else out there? Peer pressure and social insensitivity are driving us over logic and common sense? Well, I guess that should not come as too big of a surprise to many of us after watching what the world has gone through these past couple years.
It is time to look into a nationally recognized “immunity passport” and stop blocking social freedom based on social pressure.