Republicans fighting President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandates are wielding a new weapon against the White House rules: natural immunity.
The immunity debate comes as the country is experiencing another surge in infections and hospitalizations and 60 million people remain unvaccinated in a pandemic that has killed more than 770,000 Americans.
Florida is one of 26 states suing the Biden administration over its private employer vaccine mandate. Another six states have taken the federal government to court over new immunization requirements for hospitals.
But now, many Republicans eager to buck Biden have embraced the argument that immunity from earlier infections should be enough to earn an exemption from the mandates.
This is the case with Florida and its first-term governor, Ron DeSantis. DeSantis pushed the state legislature to pass a comprehensive bill that says businesses can require vaccination as a condition of employment if workers are allowed to opt-out through a medical or religious exemption, proof of natural immunity, or by submitting to regular testing for COVID-19.
The measure, one of four vaccine-related bills approved in the span of a few hours Wednesday, passed the Florida House on a vote of 78 to 39 and the Senate 24 to 14.
The Republican-led New Hampshire Legislature plans to take up a similar measure when it meets in January. Lawmakers in Idaho and Wyoming, both statehouses under GOP-control, recently debated similar measures but did not pass them. In Utah, a newly signed law creating exemptions from Biden’s vaccine mandates for private employers allows people to duck the requirement if they have already had COVID.
A recent House Bill (H.R. 5590) and its Senate companion (S. 2846), both titled the “Natural Immunity is Real Act”, would require all federal agencies issuing rules or regulations relating to COVID-19 to
“acknowledge, accept, agree to truthfully present, and incorporate, the consideration of natural immunity as it pertains to COVID–19 with respect to the individuals subject to the applicable regulations.”
What Is Natural Immunity?
Our immune systems defend our bodies against infections and illnesses. Our bodies make proteins called antibodies that counteract or kill germs, like viruses and bacteria.
In other words, you get protection, or “immunity,” from a specific disease when your immune system makes an antibody for it.
So, let’s look at natural immunity. In order to get natural immunity to a disease, you have to get sick. And many illnesses can cause serious health issues that can affect you, sometimes for life.
Take chickenpox, for example. In some people, chickenpox can cause lung infections (pneumonia), blood infections, and swelling of the brain (encephalitis). Before a vaccine was developed, this common childhood illness resulted in 10,000 hospitalizations every year.
Natural immunity, like vaccine-induced immunity, are both types of active immunity. That’s the medical term for when you’re exposed to something that spurs your immune system to make antibodies to disease.
Covid: Natural versus vaccine-induced immunity
Republican lawmakers are dead set on pushing for natural immunity, meaning that if someone has had the coronavirus, then they are immune from future infections. This is a very bad assumption to make when someone’s life may be at risk.
If you catch COVID-19, research suggests that the natural immunity you get from it makes another COVID infection unlikely for 90 days. Experts aren’t sure just how long that level of protection lasts, though. And yes, you can get COVID-19 again.
A recent study showed that people who’d had it but weren’t vaccinated were more than twice as likely to get it again, compared to vaccinated people who got a breakthrough case.
The bottom line? Getting fully vaccinated also gives you months of immunity — without making you sick from the coronavirus. The vaccines are safe and effective.
