Natural immunity is effective as against COVID, so why doesn't it count for vaccine mandates?

For the past 19 months, politicians and government medical officers have shouted "trust the science" as a mantra. In March of 2020, it was hard to trust the science, because even the "experts" admitted that they did not know much about the novel Sars-CoV-2 virus. The predictions that Covid would kill tens of millions of people around the globe, like the Spanish Flu of 1918, have been proven false. Yet the fear remains.

With new mRNA vaccines rushed through development and testing at unprecedented speeds, proper scientific discourse was left by the wayside. Before Covid, no vaccine was declared to be either "safe" or "effective" until after many years of testing. The mRNA vaccine has not been subjected to any long-term safety testing in people. In the context of the past 50 or 100 years, when vaccines took years (not months) to create and test, those who have received the mRNA vaccine are effectively participating in a large global experiment.

Those who have been infected by, and recovered from, Covid-19 have acquired natural immunity. This would have been considered sound medical knowledge or "settled science" before Covid. For instance, a Personal Support Worker (PSW) starting a practicum would likely need to provide proof of immunity or vaccination against Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps, Rubella etc. This is easily accomplished through a simple blood test of their antibodies, even years after infection or vaccination.

Ichor Blood Services, a private lab based in Calgary, Alberta, has released its findings on natural immunity. Based on 4,300 qualitative antibody tests to date, Ichor's report shows that 42 percent of unvaccinated Albertans have some level of natural immunity protection against Covid. As might be expected, the data shows that most fully vaccinated Albertans have high levels of antibodies. Interestingly, the data also shows that one in ten vaccinated Albertans has zero antibody immunity, suggesting the vaccine might be useless for 10 percent of recipients.

Why are Canada's federal and provincial governments ignoring the natural immunity that already protects so many people? Why are those who choose not to undergo an experimental medical procedure treated as second-class citizens, stripped of their human rights and their Charter-protected freedoms? Where is the justification for the dismissal of thousands of Canadian workers from their employment? Is this "trusting the science," or ignoring it?

"[W]e can see," Ichor CEO Mike Kuzmickas explains, "that a percentage of unvaccinated people have strong antibody levels, and 42 percent of unvaccinated people have some level of antibodies in their system. These tests can be a powerful tool for policy makers to get a more nuanced understanding about protection from COVID-19 in the population."

Around the world, medical studies are providing strong evidence that naturally acquired immunity is equal to, or even exceeds vaccine immunity. One prominent Israeli study monitored over 700,000 people, comparing the vaccinated against the naturally immune. Neither group suffered greatly from "breakthrough cases," but the vaccinated had anywhere from six to 13 times as much risk of re-infection and hospitalization compared to those with natural immunity. This study demonstrates that natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization caused by Covid's Delta variant, when compared to two-dose vaccine-induced immunity.

Prior to Covid, it was common knowledge that vaccines worked by making your body mount a natural response to a threat, without being exposed to the full-blown virus, as shown by many studies. In other words, vaccines try to stimulate what the body does naturally. A natural immune response not only produces antibodies, as is the case with the experimental mRNA vaccines, but also activates different layers of a human's defense system, like T cells. T cells target infected cells and destroy them. T cells help create antibodies in the fight against an intruding virus. T cells also attack a virus more generally, so those dreaded Covid 'variants' have less chance of sneaking through. Why did this become a controversial opinion?

Recent reports feature Pfizer scientists Nick Karl, Chris Croce and Rahul Khandke all touting the superiority of natural immunity over vaccines. Our bodies have systems in place for fighting viruses, and protecting us against a repeat attack. Trusting the science means accepting this reality. The more that labs like Ichor Blood Services produce convincing results showing robust natural immunity, the less our governments can justify violating Charter freedoms by way of vaccine mandates. It's time we tell governments to trust the science.

Lawyer John Carpay is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which has filed a court challenge to vaccine passports in Ontario.