There's No Reason to Seek Out Natural Immunity
Why What Dennis Prager Did was Just Dumb
On Monday Dennis Prager, nationally sindicated radio talkshow host, annouced that he had Covid. That alone isn’t all that newsworthy as far as I’m concerned.
What was newsworth was that Dennis Prager had annouced that he had avoided getting the vaccine and intentionally “engaged with strangers, constrantly hugging them, taking photos with them, knowing that [he] was making [himself] succeptable to geting Covid”. He stated it was “infinitely preferable to have natural immunity than vaccine immunity”, so he sought out to intentionally get infected. While it sounds like he is already recoving and will be fine, this is a real head scratcher for me.
Natural immunity for Covid is a real thing (despite what Fauci et al would have you believe), and it is indeed stronger than solely vaccinated immunity based on the preponderance of scientific evidence, but this is not an either or dilemma. There is no reason to avoid the vaccine just to wait for natural immunity "instead".
In fact, given the nature of the Covid vaccines, which offer immunity against infection that wanes over time, eventually everyone will get infected. So whether you are vaccinated or not you will eventually have natural immunity too. The difference is that if you are vaccinated first you have much better odds of avoiding hospitalization or death.
All Dennis was doing by waiting was taking a risk with his health. For a young adult under 50 and in good health, this risk is not much different from the risk in avoiding the flu shot, but Dennis isn't 50, he’s 74. His risk from Covid is over 10 times greater than a 50 year old. Estimates vary, but for a 70 to 74 year old who is healthy enough to be living out of a nursing home, the fatality risk from Covid is around 1%. That's not exactly Russian roulette, but it's a far cry from the multiple 100,000's to 1 risk faced by children. There is no data to suggest that Covid vaccine risks are within a mile of this either, it's a very simple choice for someone of that age, and one I hope all senior citizens make.
Furthermore, even if you are dead set on not getting vaccinated, (for those healthy and under 50 the reasons start to make a lot more sense) there's no reason to go out of your way to get infected with Covid. The point of being immune is that it allows you to avoid infection. To intentionally get infected, so you can gain immunity, so that you can avoid infection, is just bizarre circular logic. In fact, the longer you wait the better off you will be since treatments continue to improve. Better to simply live your life normally and take the same precautions you would take during any flu season.
One thing I will credit Dr. Prager on, he was definitely up to date on his knowledge of Covid treatments. He immediately went on monoclonal antibodies, and he was taking zinc, HCQ, IVM, and a number of other drugs shown to likely help with Covid treatment. If you find yourself infected and are in a higher age range like he is Covid19CriticalCare.com is a good place to start.
Anyway, I'm glad Dennis is fine, but what he did just makes no sense. It was just dumb, and I wouldn't suggest that anyone else his age follow his advice.
Anyway, 0 and 2…
"whether you are vaccinated or not you will eventually have natural immunity too. The difference is that if you are vaccinated first you have much better odds of avoiding hospitalization or death."
In general that may be true, but I wonder, considering Denis was taking Prophylactics, whether those odds accurately reflect his increased protection of severity?
I've had Covid. If I hadn't I probably wouldn't go seek it out either, but I don't necessarily think its dumb to, knowing your own risk and being educated in treatments, to get the inevitable over with. If your not gonna take the vaccine, your not gonna take it. Anyways, thanks for the great articles!