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People who previously were infected with Covid-19 should eventually get vaccinated against the disease because their immunity protection will likely wane over time, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Wednesday.
"The immunity conferred by natural infection seems to be robust and seems to be durable. We know it lasts at least six months, probably longer," the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said on "Squawk Box."
"My hunch is it's not going to last in perpetuity. At some point, those individuals are going to need to get vaccinated," added Gottlieb, who now serves on the board of vaccine maker Pfizer.
A key question remaining about natural immunity is whether having a more severe case of Covid, compared with someone who remained asymptomatic, for example, leads to higher-quality protection.
"With SARS and MERS, we saw people who got more sick ended up having more durable immunity. We don't know if that's the case with this SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it might be," Gottlieb said, referring to two other types of coronaviruses — severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome — that caused outbreaks in multiple countries.
One study conducted in Israel found that natural infection offered "longer lasting and stronger protection" against the highly transmissible coronavirus delta variant than Pfizer's two-dose Covid vaccine. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
By contrast, a study in the U.K., which also hasn't been peer-reviewed yet, arrived at a different conclusion. "Effectiveness of two doses remains at least as great as protection afforded by prior natural infection," the researchers wrote. Unlike in the Israeli paper, participants in this study included recipients of AstraZeneca's and Moderna's two-dose vaccines, in addition to Pfizer.
"I think on the balance it's unclear whether vaccine-induced immunity is better, slightly better, slightly worse, than" natural immunity, Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb acknowledged that data shows vaccine protection declines over time, as well. The U.S. is currently administering booster shots to people who have weakened immune systems to counteract that — and later this month, a broader swath of the population will become eligible for an additional vaccine dose.
Some unvaccinated Americans may believe their previous coronavirus infection offers adequate protection against the disease, so they do not feel a sense of urgency to get the vaccine.
However, Gottlieb's remarks Wednesday add to his previously stated view that people who have been infected and then get vaccinated have "the best of both worlds."
"At least with one dose, you do develop a broad, very deep, very durable immunity based on the data that we've seen so far," Gottlieb said July 6 on CNBC. "So, there's still a lot of compelling reasons why you'd want to get vaccinated even if you've been previously infected."
Andrew Kinsey knew that even after being vaccinated against the coronavirus, there was a chance he could still fall ill with covid-19.
He just never expected to feel this lousy from a case doctors call mild.
"The vaccine appears to have worked to protect my lungs, so that kept me from having life-threatening symptoms, but at the same time, a so-called mild course can be . . . sort of the sickest I've ever been in my life," said Kinsey, who is 38 and lives with his wife and three children in Pennsylvania. "It's important for people to know that what they picture in their head of a bad cold isn't necessarily what will actually happen even if they get a mild course."
Kinsey and other vaccinated people who develop breakthrough cases of covid-19, the illness caused by the virus, are learning a mild case may not seem so mild to the person enduring the infection. Those cases can be as modest as a few days of sniffles, but, in other circumstances, can spawn debilitating headaches and fatigue. Symptoms can persist longer than the usual cold.
But public health authorities and scientists stress that research overwhelmingly shows that coronavirus vaccines are keeping people out of the hospital and that most breakthrough cases are mild or moderate.
Seven vaccinated people who ended up sicker than they expected shared their stories and said they did not want to cast doubt on vaccines - because they believe their outcome would have been much worse had they not been inoculated. Instead, they said they want to help fellow vaccinated people weigh their risks as they decide when to wear a mask and whether to attend a wedding or travel for vacation. They also do not want people to assume a mild case is trivial.
Florida Department of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issued a warning and announced an immediate investigation into Sarasota County and Hillsborough County Schools over their new mask mandates that eliminated a parental opt-out, except for medical exemptions.
Corcoran gave the school districts until 5 p.m. Wednesday to “provide a written response” to document how “your district is complying with the Florida Department of Health Rule 64DER21-12.” The commissioner said if the districts don’t “document full compliance” with the rule, he will recommend the State Board of Education, “withhold funds in an amount equal to the salaries for all the members of the School Board, as well as other sanctions authorized by law, until the district comes into compliance.”
The letters, dated August 27, were revealed just hours after the state withheld the pay of school board members in Broward and Alachua counties for instituting mask mandates that don’t contain a parental opt-out, except in documented medical cases. Broward and Alachua Counties were the first two counties in the state to enact such mandates in defiance of the state, which ordered parental opt-outs without conditions.
DOE threatens salaries of Sarasota School Board members
Last week, a judge tossed DeSantis' mask mandate ban, a fact mentioned by Dan DeLeo, a partner with Sarasota law firm Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP, which represents the School Board.
"A Florida judge, after hearing all the evidence, concluded that a temporary, narrowly tailored emergency mask mandate based on competent evidence like Sarasota counties, does not violate the Parent’s Bill of Rights and that it is the responsibility — and indeed the constitutional obligation — of the Sarasota County School Board to protect its students and provide a safe learning environment," DeLeo said in an email.
DeLeo also said the judge's order prohibited punishing school boards that have enacted mask mandates. However, the judge's order does not go into effect until he issues his written order, which had not been released as of mid-afternoon Wednesday.
Corcoran's letter was sent last Friday. The governor has vowed to appeal the ruling in the potentially more friendly First District Court of Appeal.
DeLeo said his understanding was that the commissioner is threatening to withhold the entire salary of school board members who voted in favor of the mask policy.
Board chairwoman Shirley Brown said she believed the number of COVID-19 cases within schools would begin to fall, now that a mask rule was in place, and the threat of losing her salary did not bother her.
"I’m not doing this for the money. We had over 1,000 cases in our schools last week -- in one week," Brown said. "A mask mandate is one of the few options that we have to control the spread of the virus."
Tallahassee attorney Ron Meyer said he does not think the threat to withhold salaries "had a leg to stand on" and that the governor should not be so confident that the appellate court will agree with him when he appeals the original ruling.
"This is not the case of some activist judge," Meyer said. "This is a very strict constructionist view of the statute, and I would think that conservative judges everywhere would uphold that rationale."
I've mentioned numerous times that hospitalizations are now falling in Florida - and that cases have stopped rising and are in a plateau process (likely to decline soon). In fact I'm proud to say that my timing in calling the Covid upswings and downswings has been very good. I report the news period. When it's good I'll report that but when it's bad I'll report that too.
BRADENTON, Fla. (WWSB) - The Florida Department of Health in Manatee County will permanently close its COVID-19 vaccination site at the Palmetto bus station on Sept. 3.
Anyone seeking a vaccination should head to DOH-Manatee’s clinic on Sixth Avenue East instead.
DOH-Manatee continues to offer first, second and third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna brands of the vaccine, as well as the one-dose Johnson & Johnson brand of the vaccine, to anyone ages 12 and up at no cost.
All vaccinations are by appointment only. Appointments are available between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. Call 941-242-6646 to book an appointment.
Anyone who books an appointment for a vaccination is asked to download and complete a vaccination consent form. The form can be accessed at https://manatee.floridahealth.gov. Click on “Events” in the toolbar and the system will take you to the page with the form.
Anyone under age 18 who would like to be vaccinated must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
The clinic is located at 410 Sixth Ave. East in Bradenton.
COVID-19 testing continues to be offered outdoors at the Bradenton Area Convention Center daily, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The site offers both PCR and rapid testing.
Last edited by wondermint2; 09-01-2021 at 04:07 PM..
A Sarasota County elementary school was briefly placed on a limited lockdown Tuesday after police say an “irate parent” who was upset with the school’s mask policy allegedly threatened the assistant principal in a phone call.
The incident happened just after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Ashton Elementary School in Sarasota. According to a police report released by the Sarasota County Schools Police Department, the school’s assistant principal “frantically” ran to the school resources officer and requested the department’s police chief respond to the school for an irate parent.
Police say the parent called and told the assistant principal “he was leaving work and driving down to the school for him” and was going to “lift the roof off.” WFLA is not naming the parent because he is not being charged.
Officers say they worked to de-escalate the situation and explained to the parent that the principal and assistant principal of the school did not make the mask mandates and that it was not a criminal matter. The police report says the parent was given multiple options for schooling his children or possibly requesting a medical exemption opt-out.
While it's clear that businesses in FL cannot request vaccine documentation from customers - It's still unclear to me if an employer in FL can request proof of vaccination from an employee. I read the full statute and it doesn't specifically mention anything about employers. So my hunch is that businesses in FL can request vaccination proof from employees. I posted the full FL statute below.
Ask for COVID vaccine proof, face a $5,000 fine in Florida
Florida will start issuing $5,000 fines to businesses, schools and government agencies that require people to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill earlier this year that banned vaccine passports. The fines will start Sept. 16 if people are asked to show proof of a vaccine.
(1) A business entity, as defined in s. 768.38 to include any business operating in this state, may not require patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or postinfection recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business operations in this state. This subsection does not otherwise restrict businesses from instituting screening protocols consistent with authoritative or controlling government-issued guidance to protect public health.
(2) A governmental entity as defined in s. 768.38 may not require persons to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or postinfection recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the governmental entity’s operations in this state. This subsection does not otherwise restrict governmental entities from instituting screening protocols consistent with authoritative or controlling government-issued guidance to protect public health.
(3) An educational institution as defined in s. 768.38 may not require students or residents to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or postinfection recovery for attendance or enrollment, or to gain access to, entry upon, or service from such educational institution in this state. This subsection does not otherwise restrict educational institutions from instituting screening protocols consistent with authoritative or controlling government-issued guidance to protect public health.
(4) The department may impose a fine not to exceed $5,000 per violation.
(5) This section does not apply to a health care provider as defined in s. 768.38; a service provider licensed or certified under s. 393.17, part III of chapter 401, or part IV of chapter 468; or a provider with an active health care clinic exemption under s. 400.9935.
(6) The department may adopt rules pursuant to ss. 120.536 and 120.54 to implement this section.
Last edited by wondermint2; 09-01-2021 at 06:33 PM..
I've mentioned numerous times that hospitalizations are now falling in Florida - and that cases have stopped rising and are in a plateau process (likely to decline soon). In fact I'm proud to say that my timing in calling the Covid upswings and downswings has been very good. I report the news period. When it's good I'll report that but when it's bad I'll report that too.
Your post had a link behind a paywall, not very useful.
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