Watching the Smerconish program on CNN this morning, I was surprised to learn that Europe treats natural immunity attained after recovering from COVID the same as vaccination for purposes of public-health policy. The U.S. does not. Lawsuits have been filed seeking to remedy that disparity.
Smerconish asked his guest — UCSF infectious-disease expert Dr. Monica Ghandi — whether we or Europe had the better approach in this regard. She said that the studies are in “equipoise,” that is, some show vaccines offering better protection and some natural disease. She concluded that because natural immunity does seem to protect against severe disease upon reinfection — as this study also indicated — Europe has the better approach.
Germany also treats travelers to the country equivalently. From the Reuters story:
All travellers arriving in Germany will be required from this weekend to demonstrate immunity from COVID-19 either from a vaccine or previous infection, or present a negative test result, government sources reported.
Allowing proof of natural immunity — or negative testing — has always been the compromise answer allowing us to declare a truce in the vaccine-mandate wars and end the roiling that government and private-sector coercion has been causing throughout society and the economy. That’s the sweet spot. That’s the answer to restoring COVID comity.
There seems little reason not to follow this approach — unless the real point of mandates isn’t effective public-health policy but societal control.