Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s lead adviser for the COVID-19 pandemic, told CNN on Thursday that he can’t give “a really firm answer” on the credibility of a study that depicts natural immunity willl give stronger protection against the virus than vaccines alone.
While on an interview on “Anderson Cooper 360,” CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta questioned Fauci about a study done in Israel that shows natural immunity from a prior COVID-19 infection showed longer-lasting protection against the Delta variant of coronavirus than two shots of the Pfizer vaccine.
“So, as we talk about vaccine mandates, I get calls all the time, people say, I’ve already had COVID, I’m protected. And now the study says maybe even more protected than the vaccine alone. Should they also get the vaccine? How do you make the case to them?” Gupta asked.
“You know, that’s a really good point, Sanjay. I don’t have a really firm answer for you on that,” Fauci replied.
“That’s something that we’re going to have to discuss regarding the durability of the response,” he continued. “The one thing that paper from Israel didn’t tell you is whether or not — as high as the protection is with natural infection — what’s the durability compared to the durability of a vaccine?”
Fauci said that it is possible that natural immunity from a prior COVID-19 infection only gives brief protection from viral infection.
“So, I think that is something that we need to sit down and discuss seriously, because you very appropriately pointed out, it is an issue, and there could be an argument for saying what you said,” Fauci said.
His response was misleading. The Israeli researchers particularly addressed the longevity of natural immunity compared to the vaccine immunity, writing that their study showed “natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant” than the two-dose Pfizer vaccine.
Formerly, Fauci was confident that the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna give stronger immune protection against all variants of COVID-19 than natural immunity.
“Vaccines, actually, at least with regard to SARS-CoV-2 [the coronavirus] can do better than nature,” Fauci said in May during a White House COVID-19 briefing. “Vaccination in people previously infected significantly boosts the immune response.”
At the time, Fauci brought up two peer-reviewed studies that supported his views.
Health experts have said that while natural immunity is good for people, it is not a good strategy for handling a pandemic because it is different from person to person depending on a few factors like age, health, and the strength of a person’s immune system.
“What we’re learning is that the immunity that is generated for many people after recovering from COVID-19 is stronger than we thought. And that’s great news,” said Dr. Brandon Webb, an infectious diseases physician with Intermountain Healthcare who spoke to KTVX-TV about the Israeli study.
“That natural immunity, it does appear to be stronger than the immunity that the vaccines are able to elicit in patients who have never had COVID,” Dr. Webb explained. But, he added, relying on natural immunity to offer widespread protection against COVID-19 is a “non-viable strategy.”
Webb brought up that the Israeli study found that “patients who have natural immunity and are then vaccinated are in the best possible situation.”
President Biden on Thursday declared a broad executive order that will force private companies with more than a hundred employees to require their workers to get the vaccine or have a COVID-19 test done regularly. Any employer who does not comply with the order will be subject to fines as high as $14,000 per violation, White House officials said earlier in the week.
While Biden’s vaccine mandate does not bring up natural protection at all, some employers have taken steps to consider natural immunity exceptions to their vaccine requirements. A hospital system in western Michigan, Spectrum Health, for example, will give brief exemptions from its employee vaccine requirements to anyone who has a positive PCR or antigen test for COVID-19 plus a positive antibody test from within the past few months, the Detroit News reported.
Fauci told CNN he completely supports the president’s order and said that were he in charge, he would would took it steps farther than Biden by getting rid of the testing option for workers.
“Myself, I would make it just vaccinate or not. But he was trying to be moderate in what his pronouncement was,” he added.