Marty Makary, MD, is a surgical oncologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. He said undercounting or ignoring natural immunity from any herd immunity tally 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,” Dr. Makary said. “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. Makary said some health experts point to a lack of data as one of the reasons they don’t account for natural immunity in their projections. He argued that the National Institutes of Health and CDC should spend more funding investigating this question.
“If we say we’re going to follow the science, then we need to be willing to consider all the data,” he concluded.
To view the full op-ed, click here.
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