My "unopened" open letter to Ireland: Immune to natural immunity

@wwaycorrigan

You can blame — or thank, as the case may be — the Irish Independent for the following.

As a recipient of that paper's twice-daily newsletter, this helps me keep abreast of what's making the headlines back home. The Indo, as the cool people call it, appears to be firmly following the line of official Ireland when it comes to the covid-19 pandemic.

In fairness, pretty much every other media group in Ireland seems to be doing likewise. Dissenting voices are disregarded as cranks and/or conspiracy theorists.

So it came as no surprise that the letter I sent to the Independent and other newspapers on this very topic wasn't published. (It may yet appear this weekend, but that's unlikely.)

For the record — and for a small bit of peace of mind — below is a copy of exactly what I wrote, minus the salutations and with a couple of hyperlinks for additional reading:

People wait for a covid-19 vaccine in Bogotá, Colombia. But what about natural immunity?

'While the evidence suggests that covid-19 vaccines have helped those most vulnerable to the disease avoid severe illness and even death, the lack of attention paid to natural immunity is not only baffling but worrying.

'Many of those displaying a moral superiority for having been jabbed would do better to focus on living a healthier lifestyle rather than pontificating to the rest of us.'

Observing from a safe distance afar, the majority of Irish media seems to be in the vaccine-or-nothing brigade. That nothing amounts to being denied access to anything close to resembling a normal life. Alas, there's a glaring lack of critical thinking from Ireland's feeble Fourth Estate.

Thankfully, amidst all the hysteria, there are respected experts in the field — Jay Bhattacharya, Sunetra Gupta and Martin Kulldorff to name but three — who continue to highlight the role acquired/natural immunity plays in many individuals in keeping this virus at bay.

These defences can be present without actually having had covid-19, so the proof-of-recovery option in order to enter venues, etc. doesn't work in this case.

We've known from very early on in this pandemic that covid-19 is a deadly infection for only a very small percentage of the population. Its death rate is far from that of an indiscriminate killer such as yellow fever, for which proof of inoculation is required in some regions of the world. This is often used as an example by those in  favour of covid-19 vaccine passports. Anyone who thinks it's a like-for-like comparison is clearly suffering from coronavirus monomania.

The idea that one is being altruistic in getting jabbed also doesn't stand up to scrutiny. For one, we've seen plenty of fully vaccinated people get infected.

Secondly, it's not certain that inoculated individuals who come into contact with coronavirus carry less of a viral load than those with naturally acquired immunity.

Our immune systems have been battling coronaviruses for millennia. Many of those displaying a moral superiority for having been jabbed would do better to focus on living a healthier lifestyle rather than pontificating to the rest of us.'

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