The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a Twitter poll over the weekend in an attempt to encourage individuals that have recovered from COVID-19 to get vaccinated for the virus as soon as possible. The response they got was not what they were expecting, however.
“If you’ve already had #COVID19 and recovered, you should still get vaccinated against COVID-19,” the tweet read, with an option for users to vote true or false. By an overwhelming majority, 72.2 percent of the more than 55,000 respondents voted “false,” while 27.8 percent voted “true.”
If you’ve already had #COVID19 and recovered, you should still get vaccinated against COVID-19.
— CDC (@CDCgov) June 25, 2021
The results of the poll ultimately prompted the CDC to issue a follow-up tweet, in which the agency claimed the statement was true. The CDC also encouraged Americans previously infected with the virus to get vaccinated “as soon as you can.”
While the CDC argues any naturally developed immunity could be short-lived and insufficient, recent medical studies have suggested that individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 have lasting protection against the respiratory virus.
Published in the scientific journal Nature, a study conducted by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that not only were previously infected people still pumping out antibodies months after infection, but that such immunity could potentially last up to a lifetime.
“Long-lived bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs) are a persistent and essential source of protective antibodies,” the study read. “Individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 have a substantially lower risk of reinfection with SARS-CoV-2.”
“Overall, our results indicate that mild infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces robust antigen-specific, long-lived humoral immune memory in humans,” the study concluded.
The senior author of the study, Dr. Ali Ellebedy, an associate professor of pathology and immunology, notes that the natural decrease in antibody levels following an infection can send the wrong message that an individual is left without any form of protection against the virus.
“Last fall, there were reports that antibodies wane quickly after infection with the virus that causes COVID-19, and mainstream media interpreted that to mean that immunity was not long-lived,” he said. “But that’s a misinterpretation of the data. It’s normal for antibody levels to go down after acute infection, but they don’t go down to zero; they plateau. Here, we found antibody-producing cells in people 11 months after first symptoms. These cells will live and produce antibodies for the rest of people’s lives. That’s strong evidence for long-lasting immunity.”
In addition to Ellebedy’s findings, recently released data by the Cleveland Clinic also seems to indicate that natural immunity is just as sufficient as the COVID-19 vaccines at stopping infection. When analyzing more than 50,000 clinic employees over a five-month period, the study found that not a single unvaccinated participant that had previously contracted the virus suffered reinfection.
“The cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection remained almost zero among previously infected unvaccinated subjects, previously infected subjects who were vaccinated, and previously uninfected subjects who were vaccinated, compared with a steady increase in cumulative incidence among previously uninfected subjects who remained unvaccinated,” the study read. “Not one of the 1,359 previously infected subjects who remained unvaccinated had a SARS-CoV-2 infection over the duration of the study.”
In its conclusion, the study also suggests, “Individuals who have had SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to benefit from COVID-19 vaccination,” and that “vaccines can be safely prioritized to those who have not been infected before.”
During an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., discussed the ramifications of the study, while also lambasting the medical bureaucracy for its continued discrediting of robust, naturally occurring immunity.
“This is the problem we have,” he said. “Nobody is really willing to be an independent thinker on this.” Paul later added that “the science” on natural immunity “has been out there for a long time.”
While only a Twitter poll, the response to the CDC’s latest tweet represents a microcosm of the boiling frustration among the millions of Americans who have suffered an upheaval in their lives thanks to the agency’s antics over the past year.
The persistent denial by the CDC regarding the efficacy of natural immunity isn’t “following the science,” but is instead a rejection of it. Outwardly dismissing this important facet of biological functions will only continue to provide the country with another reason to distrust our medical bureaucracy at a time when we need their honesty the most.
