Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) has written a pointed letter to top U.S. medical authorities asking why they seem to be ignoring one of the most important factors in the Covid-19 pandemic: natural immunity.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that more than 120 million Americans have successfully fought off Covid infection. A large body of studies indicates those people are left with natural immunity to future infection that is superior to that which comes with vaccination.
CDC has not publicly updated the 120 million number in more than three months. Experts say the number of naturally-immune Americans is now substantially higher since widespread circulation of the Delta version of Covid.
Yet natural immunity was not even mentioned in President Biden’s speech announcing upcoming national vaccine mandates.
Some researchers and studies have found that natural immunity from COVID-19 could last years or potentially decades.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.)
In a letter to White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, and FDA head Janet Woodcock, Johnson asks a series of questions including:
Provide the estimated number of breakthrough infections in vaccinated persons versus reinfections in previously infected persons.
Please explain why “antibody testing is not recommended to determine whether you are immune or protected from COVID-19.”
Has the FDA or CDC examined the duration of natural immunity compared to vaccine immunity? If not, why not?
Thousands of fully-vaccinated Americans have been hospitalized or died of Covid-19 in recent weeks. According to multiple studies around the world, the odds of people who have recovered from Covid getting reinfected and ending up in the hospital is much smaller than the odds of the fully-vaccinated getting Covid.
Yet federal health officials have not acknowledged this phenomenon, and are pressing those who already have better presumed immunity to get vaccinated, anyway.
They cite the often larger number of unvaccinated people among total hospitalized and dead without pointing out that the subset of unvaccinated, naturally-immune are ending up among the seriously ill less often than the fully-vaccinated.
Some people who have recovered from Covid-19 will have measurable antibodies in their blood. However, virologists say many people are immune without having developed antibodies. Therefore, antibody tests are not the only measure of whether a person has immunity from Covid either with or without having symptoms.
Public health officials have not offered plans to find ways for people to learn if they have immunity to Covid and, therefore, may not need to be vaccinated. Some experts say exposing already-immune people to side effects from the vaccination, however slight or unknown, is ethically irresponsible and potentially dangerous for some.
CDC and some other health officials claim that naturally-immune people can benefit even more if they get vaccinate. However, that is contradicted by multiple experts and studies.
Earlier this year, CDC and its vaccine advisers got caught falsely telling physicians and the public that Moderna and Pfizer studies showed those who already had Covid can benefit further from vaccination. That was false; the studies found no benefit.
A similar fabrication was repeated in a recent article in Science magazine but was corrected when a reader flagged it.
Read the entire letter below:
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
Director
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 5601 Fishers Lane
Bethesda, MD 20892
Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., MPH Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30329
Janet Woodcock, M.D.
Acting Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration 10903 New Hampshire Ave Silver Spring, MD 20993
Dear Drs. Fauci, Walensky, and Woodcock:
On September 9, 2021, President Biden announced vaccine mandates in both the public and private sectors without making any exceptions for those who have been previously infected with COVID-19 and have natural immunity.1 When asked to comment on the effectiveness of natural immunity against the virus based on recent studies from Israel, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated he did not “have a real firm answer” on that.2 Almost 20 months into the pandemic, it is shock- ing that the chief medical advisor to the president does not have a firm grasp on the effectiveness of natural immunity, but still promotes freedom-robbing vaccine mandates. This administration clearly does not want the public to question whether natural immunity is more effective than vac- cines. As President Biden revealingly declared, the vaccine mandate “is not about freedom or
1 Speech by President Joseph R. Biden on COVID-19, Sept. 9, 2021, transcript available at https://www.ny- times.com/2021/09/09/us/politics/biden-vaccine-mandates-transcript html.
2 See Yair Golderg, et al, Protection of previous SARS CoV-2 infection is similar to that of BNT162b22 vaccine protection: A three-month nationwide experience from Israel, Apr. 24, 2021, (preprint) available at https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.20.21255670v1, Sivan Gazit, et al, Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections, Aug. 25, 2021, (pre- print) available at https://www medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1; Anderson Cooper 360, CNN, Sept. 9, 2021, available at https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRl- bnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvZDgzZjUyZTQtMjQ1NS00N2Y0LTk4MmUtYWI3OTAxMjBi- OTU0L2E2YzU3ZjAxLWQyOWYtNDU1Ni1iZTRiLWFiODYwMDJmNWJjNS9mM2JiZDY1OC01ZWRm- LTQ3OWEtOWFhNy1hYjg2MDAyZjViZDcvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M/episode/NDE- wOWExM2QtMzAxNS00OWYxLWI2OGQtYWQ5ZjAwMDYyMzBk?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwi8r7auhfX- yAhXbKFkFHXrfCB0QieUEegQIAhAF&ep=6 (time stamp at 11:44).
September 15, 2021 Page 2
| personal choice.”3 This administration’s decision to disregard the effectiveness of natural im- munity and demand vaccination ignores current data and is an assault on all Americans’ civil lib- erties.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Admin- istration (FDA) have openly admitted that they have not fully studied natural immunity, while also promoting vaccination over natural immunity. The CDC recommends that, regardless of prior infection status, individuals should be vaccinated as “experts do not yet know how long you are protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19.”4 The FDA has also stated “[a]t this time, researchers do not know whether the presence of antibodies means that you are immune to COVID-19; or if you are immune, how long it will last.”5Recent studies in Israel, however, appear to show that natural immunity may provide |
| similar or even better protection than vaccines in the fight against COVID-19. In one preprint study, researchers found that, in terms of protecting against COVID-19, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection provided similar protection compared to the BioNTech vaccine.6 Another preprint study from Israel found that individuals with previous infection had 13 times the protection from the Delta variant than fully vaccinated, previously uninfected individuals.7 The same study found that there was a 27 fold increased risk for symptomatic breakthrough infection in vac- cinated individuals compared to reinfection for individuals with natural immunity.8 |
The Israeli studies are not alone in suggesting the potency of natural immunity. Earlier this year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published an article about a January 2021 study from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology with the headline “Lasting immunity found after re- covery from COVID-19.”9 The article stated that the researchers found that more than 95 per- cent of those who recovered from COVID-19 had durable immune system memory of the virus
3 Speech by President Joseph R. Biden on COVID-19, Sept. 9, 2021, transcript available at https://www.ny- times.com/2021/09/09/us/politics/biden-vaccine-mandates-transcript html.
4 Frequently Asked Questions about COVID-19 Vaccination, CDC, updated Sept. 9, 2021, available at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html.
5 Antibody (Serology) Testing for COVID-19: Information for Patients and Consumers, updated May 19, 2021, available at https://www fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/antibody-serology- testing-covid-19-information-patients-and-consumers.
6 Yair Golderg, et al, Protection of previous SARS CoV-2 infection is similar to that of BNT162b22 vaccine protec- tion: A three-month nationwide experience from Israel, Apr. 24, 2021, (preprint) available at https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.20.21255670v1.
7 Sivan Gazit, et al, Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections, Aug. 25, 2021, (preprint) available at https://www.medrxiv.org/con- tent/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1.
8 Id. at 12.
9 Sharon Reynolds, Lasting immunity found after recovery from COVID-19, NIH Research Matters, Jan. 26, 2021, available at https://www nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/lasting-immunity-found-after-recovery-covid- 19#main-content (referencing Jennifer M Dan, et al, Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection, Jan. 6, 2021, available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7919858/).
September 15, 2021 Page 3
up to 8 months later.10 The article noted that “the results provide hope that people receiving SARS-CoV-2 vaccines will develop similar lasting immune memories after vaccination.”11
According to the CDC, an estimated 120 million Americans had been infected with COVID-19 as of May 2021.12 The CDC itself acknowledges that immunity to a virus can occur “through infection with the actual disease (resulting in natural immunity).”13 I was tested for antibodies and found that seven months after having an asymptotic case of COVID-19, my serol- ogy is positive for antibodies against SARS-COV-2 at roughly the same level as an individual that has received the Moderna vaccine.14 My experience seems consistent with the previously mentioned January 2021 study that found immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 lasted up to 8 months after infection.15 Some researchers and studies have found that natural immunity from COVID-19 could last years or potentially decades.16
To better understand Dr. Fauci’s, FDA’s, and CDC’s positions regarding natural immun-
ity from COVID-19, I request the following information:
- Approximately 20 months into this pandemic, why have U.S. health agencies not fully studied COVID-19 natural immunity?
- Please explain why Dr. Fauci supports vaccine mandates for all individuals without ap- parently considering studies that show the effectiveness of natural immunity against the virus.
- Did Dr. Fauci recommend to study the protection offered by natural immunity prior to President Biden’s decision to impose vaccine mandates? If not, why not?
- Did FDA and CDC consider the January 2021 NIH article titled, “Lasting immunity found after recovery from COVID-19,” or other studies on natural immunity, when de- ciding that individuals, regardless of previous COVID-19 infection, should be vac- cinated? If not, why not?
- Does the FDA and CDC agree with the World Health Organization’s statement that “[a]vailable scientific data suggests that in most people immune responses remain robust
10 Id.
11 Id.
12 Estimated COVID-19 Burden, CDC, updated July 27, 2021, available at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019- ncov/cases-updates/burden html.
13 Vaccines & Immunizations: Immunity Types, CDC, Mar. 10, 2017, available at https://www.cdc.gov/vac- cines/vac-gen/immunity-types.htm. (emphasis included in original text).
14 I compared the results of my serology test to those of an individual who had received the Moderna vaccine. The results showed that the individual who received the Moderna vaccine and I had similar levels of antibodies.
15 Jennifer M Dan, et al, Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection, Jan. 6, 2021, available at https://www ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7919858/.
16 Apoorva Mandavilli, Immunity to the Coronavirus May Last Years, New Data Hint, New York Times, Nov. 17. 2020 (updated July 4, 2021), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/health/coronavirus-immunity html.
September 15, 2021 Page 4
and protective against reinfection for at least 6-8 months after infection”? 17 If not, why not?
- Is the FDA or CDC aware of any adverse events in previously infected individuals that have been vaccinated? Please provide a complete list of these adverse events.
- How many Americans received a vaccination after having COVID-19? If this data is un- available, please explain why.
- Provide the current estimated total number of infections of COVID-19 in the U.S.
- Do the FDA and CDC dispute the findings of the two Israeli studies cited in this letter? Ifso, please provide the data that contradict these studies.
10. Provide the estimated number of breakthrough infections in vaccinated persons versus reinfections in previously infected persons.
11. Please explain why “antibody testing is not recommended to determine whether you are immune or protected from COVID-19.”18
12. Has the FDA or CDC examined the duration of natural immunity compared to vaccine immunity? If not, why not?
Please provide a response no later than September 29, 2021. Thank you for your atten-
tion to this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
Ron Johnson
United States Senator
17 Scientific Brief, COVID-19 Natural Immunity, World Health Organization, May 10, 2021, available at https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/341241/WHO-2019-nCoV-Sci-Brief-Natural-immunity-2021.1- eng.pdf.
18 Antibody (Serology) Testing for COVID-19: Information for Patients and Consumers, updated May 19, 2021, available at https://www fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/antibody-serology- testing-covid-19-information-patients-and-consumers.
