Bill: Confirmation of antibodies as good as proof of vaccination
TRENTON — Republican state Sens. Mike Testa and Joe Pennacchio introduced a bill that would allow schools, workplaces, restaurants and other businesses and venues to accept an individual’s verbal confirmation that they have natural immunity due to a prior COVID-19 infection and in theory now carry strong antibodies exempting them from providing proof of receiving the vaccines.
The bill states some studies have suggested that people with COVID antibodies, a sign of a prior COVID infection, are at lower risk for future infection and that antibodies offer a degree of protection against being reinfected.
It notes proof of vaccination against COVID is becoming a requirement for many workplaces and public venues and the vaccination requirements typically bar individuals from participating in many social and economic activities unless the individual receives the vaccine.
“Although many of these requirements allow routine testing for COVID-19 as an alternative to vaccination to those who cannot be vaccinated or who are reluctant to be vaccinated out of health concerns or based on the individual’s personal preferences or beliefs, routine testing is a burdensome process,” the bill states.
Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a similar bill.
Testa (R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic) and Pennacchio (R-Essex, Morris, Passaic) held a livestream presentation Dec. 15 on Facebook led by Dr. Steven Koerner, an osteopathic gastroenterologist with a practice in Stafford Township. He said there is a small benefit to vaccinating those who have already had COVID but a much greater risk.
Koerner said the vaccines were not designed to prevent transmission of COVID, hospitalization or death. He called the COVID vaccine the most deadly vaccine in the history of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 80 percent of the Omicron variant infections in the U.S. have occurred in the vaccinated and one-third in those who received boosters, Koerner said.
He said after a COVID infection, most persons develop high levels of antibodies to not just one protein of the virus but to many of the other 29 proteins. Koerner said those who have been infected with COVID are two to three times more likely to experience adverse side effects from the vaccine than the uninfected.
Testa said an overly broad public policy has been put in effect rather than the patient dealing directly with their health provider. Koerner said many scientists think those at greater risk — persons with multiple comorbidities, metabolic syndromes, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and obesity — should be vaccinated.
Testa thanked panelists for their “bravery,” claiming many medical professionals have been stifled. He said Pennacchio stated the situation has shifted from “science to political science.”
Dr. Deborah Ginsburg, an integrative medicine specialist with a practice in Skillman, said she believes natural immunity is just as good, if not better, than vaccine-induced immunity against COVID.
She said the New England Journal of Medicine reported last month on a study of 353,000 persons in Qatar who were not vaccinated but had a previous COVID infection.
The findings showed a 0.4 percent reinfection rate, Ginsburg said. A total of 1,304 were re-infected, of which four had severe COVID and none experienced critical disease or death.
The authors concluded that prior infection was 88 percent effective against severe disease and hospitalization and 100 percent effective against critical disease and death, she said.
“We have no precedent in medicine for vaccinating people who have either had a particular disease and/or whose blood testing shows protective levels of antibodies,” Ginsburg said.
She said those who have been vaccinated can still get infected and spread COVID just as people who have not been vaccinated. Ginsburg said those with natural immunity are less likely to transmit COVID.
Dr. Dawn Gangi, who practices dermatology and internal medicine in Mendham, who also worked in health and beauty products in Japan, said vaccines are intended to mimic natural immunity.
She said natural immunity prevents infection and transmission of COVID, something not accomplished by vaccines. Gangi said natural immunity lasts for decades.
A recovered individual gains little to no benefit from getting a vaccine, she said.
“Those who carry natural immunity are literally the safest people on the planet to themselves as well as to others, yet there seems to be on the part of the U.S. public health officials, an ongoing state of alleged mental confusion and paralysis to the validity on natural immunity as a real principle,” Ginsburg said.
She said the federal government’s health policy was built on a house of cards that cannot stand because it is not based on science.
Maria Crisler, a clinical scientist and an owner of Abeytu Natural Products, said she did not necessarily believe in the COVID variants as they are discussed in the public eye because of the human body’s ability to recognize variants.
Scaring the public is being done “on purpose,” Crisler said.
Pennacchio said it seemed vaccines wane over time.
Crisler said she called vaccines STIs, “synthetic temporary immunity.” She said she did not like the fear mongering taking place from politicians and “inept health departments.”
“Amazing over-the-counter” as well as prescription medicines are available, Crisler said, adding that she saw a study from a province of India involving 240 million people. The government distributed free, at-home health kits to households, reducing infections in April of 310,000 people to 8,900 people.
She said the kits contained ivermectin and doxycycline.
The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals. Ivermectin is approved for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions such as rosacea.
Crisler said ivermectin alone can reverse COVID in an average of five days. She said there are a number of good protocols online.
Olive leaf extract prevents the docking of the spike protein to the ACE2 receptor, Crisler said. She said children should not “cower behind masks that suppress their immune system.”
Pennacchio said use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID became politicized and was mocked for political gains.
The FDA has revoked the emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19. It made the determination based on results from a large, randomized clinical trial in hospitalized patients that found these medicines showed no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery.
Testa said he had COVID last July and two weeks ago he had an antibodies test showing they “are pretty darn high.”
“It’s just amazing to me that the media and members of legislative bodies, executive bodies, are mandating health policy and sort of just ignoring the elephant in the room, that is, natural or acquired immunity,” he said.
Pennacchio said he was vaccinated due to his age. The state is requiring senators show proof of vaccination before entering the Senate chamber, he said.
Jennifer Brown, a registered critical care nurse, said early in the pandemic patients were able to receive hydroxychloroquine but “it was taken away from us.”
“Let’s get back to reality, let’s get back to logic, let’s start thinking and remembering that God created your body with an immune system,” she said. “It has the ability to fight off this virus, if not everybody would have dropped dead by now.”
Brown said vaccinations would not end COVID. She said she has worked with many nurses and doctors who have received two vaccine shots and a lot of those who work in her hospital have COVID.
Testa said he distrusts many of the officials who have been in charge of handling COVID.
Medical experts dispute claims supporting measure in Senate
A number of medical professionals and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not agree with assertions made during a livestream event last week organized by state Republican Sens. Mike Testa and Joe Pennacchio, who have introduced a bill that would not require proof of vaccination from those who have had COVID, claiming natural immunity is sufficient.
Dr. Nicole Iovine, M.D., program director, clinical professor and a hospital epidemiologist at the University of Florida Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine, told the Star and Wave new cases in our area are likely to be the Omicron variant since New York and New Jersey have a 13 percent rate of infection of Omicron while the rest of the nation has a rate of 3 percent, she said.
“We’ve known for quite some time now that people that have had natural infection are not as protected against another infection compared to people who have been vaccinated,” Iovine said.
She said Omicron is expected to overtake the Delta variant and become the dominant strain in a few weeks.
“It’s even more true for Omicron because natural infection really does not seem to protect against infection with Omicron,” Iovine said.
While a person may have previously been infected with the Delta variant or another strain, it provides a poor level of protection against Omicron, she said.
“If you had natural infection and then you got vaccinated or if you never had the infection and you’ve gotten your booster, those two categories of people are very strongly protected against Omicron,” Iovine said.
She said those who get the first two Pfizer or Moderna shots, which enhance the immune response, and the booster shot, it increases immune response even further, which does not happen in those who only have a natural immunity.
“From a public policy point of view, relying on natural infection is not going to protect the population from COVID infection nearly as well as getting the vaccines, especially getting the booster,” Iovine said.
There is no correlation between how sick a person became with the virus and the level of antibodies they now carry against COVID, she said.
Iovine said when measuring the antibodies a person has against COVID, a question is how long will the response last.
“We know with natural immunity that it definitely declines and falls off rather quickly, several months. It’s variable, in some people it lasts longer than others,” she said. “That’s the whole reason for the multi-shot vaccine strategy, so that as your antibodies and T-cell responses start to decline, you get another vaccine and that boosts it back up again.”
While some suggest treating COVID with ivermectin, she referred to it as “snake oil.”
“There is no evidence that ivermectin can help treat COVID,” Iovine said.
She said proven treatments are available such as monoclonal antibodies and a new antiviral drug Molnupiravir.
Very well-designed studies reported in prestigious journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine clearly show hydroxychloroquine has no effect on COVID infection, she said.
“I don’t understand why people are touting these as treatments when we have clinically proven, effective treatments,” Iovine said.
For those who claim wearing a face mask is harmful, Iovine said there is no evidence that masks harm a child or adult’s immune system. She said carbon dioxide passes freely through a mask but masks filter out droplets from other persons which are the vehicles for the virus.
Iovine said breakthrough infections following two vaccine shots can occur. However, people who have breakthrough infections with normal, healthy immune systems have a mild case of COVID.
“They do not end up hospitalized,” she said. “The people that get very sick, even if they’ve had two vaccines, are people that were very immunocompromised to begin with.”
The number of breakthrough infections is very low and very mild for persons with normal, healthy immune systems, Iovine said.
She said a person will have the strongest immune response beginning two weeks after they have had COVID and after that, immunity is going to decline.
Iovine said she had not heard of persons who had COVID to be more likely to experience side effects after receiving a vaccine.
When a person had natural infection with COVID, anywhere between 10 percent and 30 percent will develop long term COVID, she said. About 10 percent will develop fairly severe effects such as brain fog, rapid heart rates that occur suddenly, fatigue and joint pain, Iovine said.
“If somebody has natural infection and then gets vaccinated, they may be suffering from the long COVID, but they will attribute it to the vaccine,” she said.
Dr. Margaret Fisher is a pediatric infectious disease consultant and a former president of the New Jersey chapter and current board member for the American Academy of Pediatrics. She finished her residency and fellowship at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia and is a clinical professor of pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Fisher currently serves as a special adviser to New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli. Prior to that she served as an infectious disease specialist at Monmouth Medical Center.
Fisher said natural immunity is better than no immunity, but the best immunity is to get a vaccine after having COVID.
“What that vaccine will do is boost any natural immunity that you have, so it will increase your protection and it will broaden your protection,” she said.
While a person who had COVID has some natural immunity, it is unknown how much immunity and how long it will last, Fisher said. With Omicron cases spiking in the state, it is important to get everyone vaccinated and boosted, she said.
She said during the Delta variant surge, doctors saw second cases of COVID in patients.
“You can’t make a blanket statement saying we don’t give vaccines to people with protective antibodies, especially because we don’t know what protective antibody is for COVID-19,” Fisher said.
COVID vaccines were made to decrease transmission, decrease hospitalization and decrease deaths, she said.
“They are the safest vaccines that we have ever studied,” Fisher said, noting hundreds of millions of doses have been administered.
Most children who become infected with COVID don’t get very sick but it’s not true of all children, particularly those with underlying problems such as lung disease, heart disease and those being treated for cancer, Fisher said. Close to 1,000 children have died from COVID, she said.
“Children, just like adults, can get the long COVID or the post-COVID syndrome, they can have symptoms a month later that last for months,” Fisher said.
She said two or three months after recovering from a mild case of COVID, children may experience difficulty in breathing, cough, decreased exercise tolerance, heart palpitations, sleep problems, mood problems, pain in joints, muscles and abdomen, headaches and brain fog.
“You lose your ability to concentrate, you lose your ability to read and understand,” Fisher said.
Brain fog also involves short-term memory loss and trouble with learning and mathematics, she said.
“Children that were previously fine with math are losing their skills to do simple mathematics,” Fisher said.
While children are not dying at the level of adults, they are still clearly being affected by the pandemic, she said.
Fisher said some children have gotten multi-system inflammatory syndrome, which occurs about a month after contracting COVID. Children may arrive in the hospital with a fever, may be in shock and require intensive care and a lot of medication to calm their immune system since it becomes very overactive, she said.
More than 5,000 children in the U.S. have experienced multi-system inflammatory syndrome with 50 deaths, she said.
The bill introduced by Testa and Pennacchio is terrible idea, Fisher said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported infection-induced and vaccine-induced immunity last for a least six months. It noted vaccines give a substantial boost in antibodies to those who have had COVID.
No accurate test in available that has been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration to measure a person’s protection from COVID, the CDC stated.
The CDC found unvaccinated persons who recovered from COVID were five times more likely to get another case of COVID in comparison to those who had two Pfizer or Moderna vaccine shots.