COVID Confusion

To the Editor:

An interesting feature of amateur hour with COVID-19 is the frequency with which statements strike suddenly missing scientific substantiation.

On the pages of the Record, parties on opposite sides of the vaccine “debate” agree on an “incontrovertible” statement that “People who have had COVID have more natural immunity than the vaccines provide and do not benefit from vaccination” and neither party asserts a source for this misinformation. Such statements cause people to take avoidable risks, and that is not nice.

The CDC states “Emerging evidence shows that getting a COVID-19 vaccine after you recover from COVID-19 infection provides added protection to your immune system. One study showed that, for people who already had COVID-19, those who do not get vaccinated after their recovery are more than two times as likely to get COVID-19 again than those who get fully vaccinated after their recovery.”

“Multiple studies in different settings have consistently shown that infection with SARS-CoV-2 and vaccination each result in a low risk of subsequent infection with antigenically similar variants for at least six months. Numerous immunologic studies and a growing number of epidemiologic studies have shown that vaccinating previously infected individuals significantly enhances their immune response and effectively reduces the risk of subsequent infection, including in the setting of increased circulation of more infectious variants.”

The CDC advises to get vaccinated whether or not you have had COVID-19. And so you should.

This brings up the question of leadership. We need leaders capable of understanding public health issues, providing competent advice to our community and implementing effective public health programs and regulations. Whether a candidate for public office has followed the medical evidence for COVID-19 and is vaccinated as recommended by the CDC tells us much about their fitness for public office. People who arbitrarily discount medical evidence and believe in charlatan potions for irrational political purposes are poor choices, and we have some here in Fayette County on our ballot.

Non noblis solum nati sumas – Cicero

(Not for ourselves alone are we born)

Edward R. Dykes

La Grange