Sorry, Fauci, Johns Hopkins Doctor Declares We're Close to COVID Herd Immunity

Townhall.com ^ | 29 March A.D. 2021 | Matt Vespa

[lightman]

Oh, they hate him. They’ll hate him even more now. Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins has been one of the lone medical professionals trying to bring reason and logic to the COVID pandemic. He lobbed a grenade into the tent by declaring that we’ll have herd immunity by April. In fact, he said by the end of April, COVID won’t really be a big deal. this was heavily disputed by folks far less qualified, but the panic peddlers had to combat this somehow. It goes against their entire narrative of us living under the authoritarian yoke of the lab coats—who know nothing.

What Makary knows is that with the data we have now, “About 1 in 600 Americans has died of Covid-19, which translates to a population fatality rate of about 0.15%. The Covid-19 infection fatality rate is about 0.23%.” By that count, he estimates that two-thirds of the country already had the virus; the survival rate is 90+ percent by the way. With natural immunity, plus vaccinations soaring past 100 million by now, his estimate of herd immunity isn’t nuts. He said his colleagues didn’t necessarily think his projection was off but didn’t want to say anything to avoid impacting the vaccination rate. That’s precisely wrong. Medical professionals should proclaim good medical progress, especially during a pandemic. This prediction was made in late February when COVID cases had dropped 77 percent. Texas nixed its mask mandate. Three weeks later, cases are still dropping.

Makary also went after the expert class and their ‘follow the science’ narrative regarding the vaccine. They haven’t followed 'the science.' They’re more paralyzed by fear with their contradictory and utterly useless COVID protocols, especially when it comes to the vaccine. If you get vaccinated, you still have to remain in a state of panic. Oh, and keep wearing your mask because of…variants. The virus is going to mutate no matter what, but right now—these people should be telling us what we can do after we’ve acquired immunity through vaccination. He cites an unpublished Israeli study by the nation’s ministry of health that showed just one dose of the Pfizer vaccine renders the subject virtually “bulletproof” from COVID after four weeks.

So, his latest op-ed in The Wall Street Journal should bring more irritation to Fauci, Democrats, the liberal media, and the technocratic acolytes who want to keep us in a constant state of fear. Are you ready? Dr. Makary declares herd immunity is near, even if Fauci doesn’t want to acknowledge it. He circles past points he’s made in the past regarding natural immunity. It’s as if Fauci and his crew don’t get that A LOT of Americans already have natural immunity to COVID. Oh, and reinfection is rare. Does Makary think that everyone should get vaccinated? Sure, but he’s also living in the real world. Natural immunity cannot be discounted. If it is, then a massive scientific error is being made regarding calculation and its effects on public policy. Fauci’s vaccination-only path to herd immunity does lend itself to keep a lot of freedom-curbing COVID protocols in place. I don’t think that’s an accident, however (via WSJ)

Anthony Fauci has been saying that the country needs to vaccinate 70% to 85% of the population to reach herd immunity from Covid-19. But he inexplicably ignores natural immunity. If you account for previous infections, herd immunity is likely close at hand.

Data from the California Department of Public Health, released earlier this month, show that while only 8.7% of the state’s population has ever tested positive for Covid-19, at least 38.5% of the population has antibodies against the novel coronavirus. Those numbers are from Jan. 30 to Feb. 20. Adjusting for cases between now and then, and accounting for the amount of time it takes for the body to make antibodies, we can estimate that as many as half of Californians have natural immunity today.

The same report found that 45% of people in Los Angeles had Covid-19 antibodies. Again, the number can only be higher today. Between “half and two-thirds of our population has antibodies in it now,” due to Covid exposure or vaccination, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” That would explain why cases in Los Angeles are down 95% in the past 11 weeks and the positivity rate among those tested is now 1.7%.

Undercounting or removing the many Americans with natural immunity from any tally of herd immunity is a scientific error of omission.

[…]

Many physicians believe that vaccinated immunity will prove more durable than natural immunity. I agree, and I think everyone should get vaccinated. But after a year of millions of Covid-19 cases in the U.S., it’s clear that reinfections are rare. Natural immunity is real and shouldn’t be ignored.

Dr. Fauci’s vaccination-only path to herd immunity has significantly influenced the national conversation. KNBC-TV in Los Angeles has a county-by-county vaccine tracker showing a bar graph of the percentage of Californians vaccinated, with the zone 70% to 85% labeled “herd immunity.” Currently, it’s at 26%. The false construct does create a greater urgency for everyone to get vaccinated. But it also creates false justification for continued excessive restrictions on freedom. And it raises the possibility that authorities are misallocating the limited vaccine supply by failing to direct it toward people without natural antibodies.

[…]

Some experts claim they don’t talk about natural immunity because we shouldn’t trust it. But a recent Public Health England study found that less than 1% of 6,614 healthcare workers who had Covid-19 developed a reinfection within five months—even though many of them work with Covid patients. Other experts believe natural immunity is powerful. “Natural immunity after Covid-19 infection is likely lifelong, extrapolating from data on other coronaviruses that cause severe illness, SARS and MERS,” says Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease physician and professor at the University of California.

Dr. Fauci has said that we don’t have good data on natural immunity. That is largely because his own National Institutes of Health has done little to answer this and other important clinical questions.

So, these experts are doling out declarations without investigating every avenue of this virus that has a 90+ percent survivability rate? Yeah, sounds like government bureaucracy at its worst. But herd immunity is supposedly here. Let’s celebrate that, even if the COVID panic peddlers think we should forever be living under the yoke of the lab coats.

[lightman]

But herd immunity is supposedly here.

Let’s celebrate that, even if the COVID panic peddlers think we should forever be living under the yoke of the lab coats.

[DoughtyOne]

To be honest, I don’t trust any of these folks anymore.

JHU, the CDC, the NIH, the WHO, they’re all on my highly suspect
list of trusted sources.

[BenLurkin]

The states have had a full year to train people and build facilities to deal with this disease.

The people of any state which has not done so should be outraged that they are being crushed under the heel of government which is both out of control and incompetent.

[ReaganGeneration2]

Time for the VARIANTS

[GnuThere]

Variants and boosters, boosters and variants!
It’s enough to carry Big Pharma with high hopes into the Fall.

[Hojczyk]

They will do more testing that way you get more cases....And all you have to do t get more deaths is say they died from COVID..

[Sacajaweau]

That's what I've been saying all along....Fauci totally AND deliberately ignoring natural immunity.

[shanover]

Corona variants and more highly deadly and contagious diseases came out under Bush and Obama and thus we had plenty of time to handle this one but we failed (well mostly the DNC governors and DNC party using the crisis to get orangeman.)

[amihow]

That’s what I’ve been saying all along....Fauci totally AND deliberately ignoring natural immunity.
...........
And silencing Dr. Redfield, Head of CDC who said masking acts as poor man’s vaccine and builds immunity, less severe disease and fewer deaths.

[BeauBo]

"cases are still dropping"

Unfortunately cases and new hospitalizations have inflected back upward (slightly) over the last couple of weeks. (deaths have been flat, but usually lag cases by a few weeks)

These trends might well collapse soon. In addition to widespread natural immunity and growing immunization, April marks the traditional end of Cold & Flu season, and COVID-19 seems to be somewhat seasonal (like the majority of coronaviruses).

The end of April is still quite feasible for a collapse of COVID, but we are not there yet.

[familyop]

That nasty winter is over. Enjoy the outdoors. Have fun!

I think we’re close, too, and haven’t been worried about it. We have other fish to fry... Fishing! Yeah! :)

[familyop]

Yes, cases have gone up a little. But more people are being vaccinated, and some are getting healthier. No problemo. Maybe it’s over. The weather is nice!

[Prince of Space]

I’ve never had the flu and neither has hubby. I MAY have had Covid last March but nobody was being tested in AZ at the time other than in the hospitals so I’m still not sure.

However, my daughter & her family had it in December and, even though we had dinner with them the night before their symptoms started, we never got it. Hubby also works in the hospitality field and deals with customers all evening and he still hasn’t caught it, although some of his fellow employees have.

I really think some ppl just have a natural immunity to certain viruses. We’re careful but didn’t even start wearing masks until they became mandatory last July. IOW, Covid has had plenty of opportunities to infect us but still hasn’t. I realize that could change in an instant but the fact that such a contagious disease has so far left us alone just lends credence to my theory.