Former WH COVID-19 coordinator says officials never promised vaccines would prevent infection
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data on Tuesday showing that nearly 60% of Americans have coronavirus antibodies in their blood. The number of children with COVID-19 antibodies is even higher — almost 75% of children 11 and younger have antibodies, providing at least some protection from the virus.
Even so, CDC officials are still encouraging people to get vaccinated to increase protection against severe disease, and Birx echoed their concerns, adding that the U.S. is still far from herd immunity against the virus.
“The issue with herd immunity, we know natural infection and we know now vaccination doesn’t lead to long-term protection against infection,” Birx said on “America’s Newsroom.”
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“I made it very clear to the president and vice president that this vaccine was never studied to create what we call sterilizing immunity, the invincibility to never be infected again,” she said. “And I think the White House understood that, and frankly we made it very clear it was never studied to do anything but protect against severe disease and hospitalization, which it’s done a pretty good job about.”
The record is not as clear as Birx suggests. It is true that in late 2020, before the COVID-19 vaccines were released widely, both Fauci and BIrx warned that scientists were unsure that the vaccines would prevent infection, even though they appeared to be effective against severe disease.- READ MORE
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