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One of my 45-year-old patients doesn’t remember having COVID but he has the antibodies to prove it, and the amounts are quite high. He is happy to have immune protection while avoiding the clinical bullet. Another patient, 20 years older, obese and at risk for complications, developed double pneumonia but recovered with an infusion of monoclonal antibodies against the SARS COV 2 virus.
What do these two patients have in common? They both developed antibodies and some degree of immunity to the virus. A recent report from the National Institutes of Health showed that this immunity can last for at least eight months.
What is still needed is better laboratory testing of this immunity as well as permission for the recovered COVID to go to unrestricted places. Science confirms this even if the government does not yet offer its permission. This delay in translating evolving science into policy while leaving punitive restrictions in place has been a big problem throughout the pandemic.
Translate science into policy faster
Consider that a week ago, more than 20% of Americans and almost 50% of those 65 and over had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. It will certainly have an impact and create pockets of community immunity. More than 80% of COVID deaths in the United States have occurred in patients 65 years of age and older. COVID vaccines have been shown to significantly decrease the severity of illness, and a growing body of evidence shows that they decrease viral load and transmission.
Well over 2 million Americans are now vaccinated daily, and that number is set to rise as Johnson and Johnson shipped 4 million doses of their newly available vaccine on Monday. This single-dose vaccine, which can be stored in the refrigerator for three months, has been shown to be 85% effective against serious illness and 100% effective against hospitalization and death – in a single injection.
Why does the government not follow science and immediately turn it into policy? Consider a new Harvard study of 1.2 million people in Israel, nearly half of whom had received the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. After two doses, the vaccine was found to be just as effective for adults over 70 as it was for younger people, with a 94% reduction in symptomatic COVID-19, an 87% reduction in hospitalizations and, most importantly. , 92% prevention of all documented cases. infections – even at a time in Israel when the highly transmissible British variant B117 was on the rise.
But these findings, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, did not lead to an immediate policy change here as they did in Israel. In fact, the CDC had planned to release guidelines for those vaccinated on Thursday, but is delaying it. In Israel, meanwhile, vaccination or proof of immunity to infection has become a ticket to reopening society. A so-called green passport now allows Israelis to enter gyms, malls and restaurants, and travel to Greece and Cypress.
It’s worth it: I am getting the COVID-19 vaccine. I put my faith in science, Moderna and myself
Iceland allows travelers to present passports instead of quarantine or testing requirements, why not us? Why was I forced to show a negative PCR test result to enter Madison Square Garden to see a basketball game with a small, socially distant crowd when I could have shown my proof of the Centers vaccine card for Disease Control and Prevention. Science shows that vaccination or recovery from COVID or both are far more reliable indicators than a negative COVID test, which can easily be done at the wrong time in the disease process.
Think about public health, not politics
Critics of the so-called vaccine passport say rewarding immunity is a way to penalize those who are not yet immune. While this may be a good point, it is imperative to look at it more from a public health perspective; who is at risk and who puts others at risk. If you are in the fast growing immune group, you are much less likely to spread or get sick from the virus. This is the end result of public health. That doesn’t mean it’s time to throw away your masks or start crowding again, but it does mean you can see Grandma, especially if you’ve both been vaccinated.
COVID model: No, the school can’t open like the NFL. It’s much more complicated than that.
A public health perspective understands more than just the ravages of the virus, it must also consider the loneliness and isolation that has been caused by efforts to control it. Sometimes these efforts are effective, especially when imposed before the virus spreads, but sometimes they are excessive and do more harm than good. There is an epidemic of depression and anxiety here to match the COVID pandemic.
Our government has made many promises that it has broken. We must not allow the vaccine to become another political weapon. We must use our immunity as a bridge to reopen society and overcome our depression and isolation before it is too late. If there is a tangible incentive to take the vaccine in terms of restaurants, gyms, cinemas, and travel, then many more people will.
My mother-in-law, bedridden with multiple sclerosis, turns 80 this month. Haven’t seen her for a year, but now that we’ve been vaccinated I’ll be on my way to celebrate with her soon.
Dr. Marc Siegel, USA TODAY Contributor Council member and Fox News medical correspondent, is Professor of Medicine and Doctor Radio Medical Director at NYU Langone Health. His latest book, “COVID: The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science,” was published last fall. Follow him on Twitter: @DrMarcSiegel
You can read the various opinions of our committee of contributors and other editors on the Opinion home page, on Twitter. @usatodayopinion and in our daily opinion newsletter. To reply to a column, submit a comment to [email protected].
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID-19 Vaccines and Immunity Are Our Ticket to Reopening American Society
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