Connecticut Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Sara Landon prepares COVID-19 vaccine doses April 1, 2021, in Morton Hall Gymnasium at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tristan B. Lotz)
Many Americans who have chosen not to get one of the experimental COVID-19 vaccines because of the risks have hoped that testing positive for antibodies could substitute for being vaccinated, providing a virtual "vaccine passport."
But the Food and Drug Administration issued guidance this week stating a vaccine is still needed to confirm immunity from the COVID-19 virus.
The FDA acknowledged that antibody tests "can play an important role in identifying individuals who may have been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and may have developed an adaptive immune response."
"However, antibody tests should not be used at this time to determine immunity or protection against COVID-19 at any time, and especially after a person has received a COVID-19 vaccination."
The FDA said that antibodies provided by the vaccines are superior to the antibodies developed from being infected by the virus, providing needed protection that the regular antibodies do not.
But that's contradicted by empirical study data, Yale University epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch told WND.
He pointed to a massive study in Israel finding that people who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the previous three or more months had at least as much protection against new infection, hospitalization and death as vaccinated people.
"People become immune by surviving infection," argued Risch, professor of epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine.
In an email to WND, he explained that serum antibodies and T-cell antibodies – the white blood cells that attack infections – demonstrate past history of infection.
Risch said the FDA is correct that antibodies from infection are not the same as post-vaccination antibodies.
But this is irrelevant, he contended.
"These natural antibodies are proof of past infection," said Risch. "Past infection is extremely strong evidence of immunity."
'Irrational' to vaccinate children
Risch joined Dr. Peter McCullough, a professor of medicine at Baylor University, on Thursday night in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
Both have testified to the U.S. Senate, contending the federal government has politicized cheap, widely available and effective treatments for COVID-19 such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermection.
Asked by Ingraham to comment on Dr. Anthony Fauci's recommendation in a TV interview this week that children as young as 4 get vaccinated, Risch said it's "irrational."
Young children do not get very sick from COVID, they don't spread the virus, "and they certainly do not die" from it, he argued.
"So, neither they nor the society around them has any interest in vaccinating them," said Risch.
But they can be harmed by the vaccines, he said, pointing to cases reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System database, or VAERS. Among them were a 15-year-old who had a heart attack, a 2-year-old who died a day after the vaccination and a 6-month-old who died after receiving the vaccine through the mother's breast milk.
"So, children have no reason to die from vaccination that isn't going to help them or the society either," Risch said.
McCullough warned that the randomized vaccine trials excluded people who had been infected with COVID. That means there is no safety data and no indication of the effectiveness of the vaccine for people who have been infected, he said.
Further, there are two studies from the U.K. and one from New York City that show higher rates of adverse events for recovered COVID-19 patients who are vaccinated.
"There's no evidence of benefit and only evidence of harm," he said.
'Deaths follow vaccination'
On Tuesday, French virologist and Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier said that vaccinating a population while a pandemic is ongoing is an "enormous mistake."
He explained in an interview translated and published by the RAIR Foundation USA that the vaccinations are producing new variants, similar to how viruses adapt to antibiotics.
"You see it in each country, it's the same: in every country deaths follow vaccination," he said.
Montagnier called mass vaccination against the coronavirus "unthinkable" and a historical blunder that is "creating the variants" and leading to deaths from the disease.
"It’s an enormous mistake, isn’t it? A scientific error as well as a medical error. It is an unacceptable mistake," he said. "The history books will show that, because it is the vaccination that is creating the variants."
Your passport, please
Meanwhile, the concept of a vaccine passport, or some way to prove vaccination, is gaining ground.
Fauci said at a Bloomberg Businessweek conference on Thursday that he expects many U.S businesses, including cruise lines and airlines, to require customers to show proof of vaccination to receive service.
He pointed out that already, several universities have announced they will require students to be vaccinated before returning to campus this fall.
"There are organizations, particularly universities and colleges who are saying, not withstanding what the federal government is requiring, if you want to come into campus and be in in-person learning, you're going to have to show proof of vaccination," he said.
In Oregon, the state health office is requiring workspaces, businesses and "faith institutions" who want to lift their mask mandate in accordance with the new CDC guidelines to have a policy for checking the COVID-19 vaccination status of visitors and patrons who don't want to wear a mask.
In contrast, Florida is among the states that have banned local businesses from requiring proof of vaccination.
Santa Clara County, California, has ordered businesses to report the vaccination status of all of their employees.
The businesses them must "comply with the rules for personnel who are not fully vaccinated," as required under the County Health Officer's May 18 order.
Under the order, any employees who refuse to disclose their vaccination status will be assumed to be unvaccinated and subject to mask mandates and other restrictions.
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