During an appearance on WABC radio, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) – who was the first known U.S. Senator to contract the China-originated virus – revealed that he will not be taking one of the controversial COVID-19 vaccines, because he already had the disease and, thus, already has natural antibodies meant to fight it.
“Until they show me evidence that people who have already had the infection are dying in large numbers, or being hospitalized or getting very sick, I just made my own personal decision that I’m not getting vaccinated because I’ve already had the disease and I have natural immunity,” said Paul.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the wave of often-politicized science and advice surrounding it, this was the common way to treat vaccines and their associated illnesses. For example, if a child contracts chicken pox and recovers naturally, doctors advise against taking the chicken pox vaccine. When it comes to the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine, the CDC notes that there is no harm in receiving a dose of the vaccine if one is already immune to one or more of the viruses, however, it does not explicitly advise it.
However, the CDC claims that experts have no idea how long COVID-19 immunity from surviving the virus may last, despite a lack of reports of those who already had the illness contracting it again. Similarly, the pharmaceutical companies responsible for the creation of two of the popular COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States – Moderna and Pfizer – say that their mRNA vaccines will not offer permanent immunity, and have already publicly recommended both six month booster shots and annual inoculations.
Recently, Paul made headlines for his public feud with Anthony Fauci, who recently admitted that he only wears face masks indoors for optical reasons months after Paul accused him of engaging in “theater”. Paul grilled Fauci about his decision to fund “gain of function” research using bats and coronaviruses at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and later suggested Fauci could be “culpable” for the entire COVID-19 pandemic through the funding of this research.