Dr. Leana Wen drops a bombshell about natural immunity vs. the COVID vaccine

A few months ago, former Planned Parenthood CEO Dr. Leana Wen wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post about her major change of heart with regard to masking her young kids at school.

Many on Twitter have asked–how did I go from being extremely cautious with #covid19 precautions for nearly two years to now resuming pre-pandemic activities, including not masking my young kids at school?

I explain in this @postopinions column 🧵: https://t.co/3UGUxWvCH7

— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) August 23, 2022

She’s apparently spent the time since then evolving on other COVID-related issues, because she recently wrote another opinion piece for WaPo, this time concerning the COVID vaccine mandate for the U.S. military:

From @DrLeanaWen: A compromise on the military covid vaccine mandate https://t.co/aZPc2drpG0

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) December 18, 2022

Notably, Wen also discusses the effectiveness of natural immunity vs. vaccination, and you’ll be shocked to learn that there might actually be something to that whole natural immunity thing after all:

It’s crucial to discuss immunity from infection, because abundant research shows natural immunity conveys excellent protection against covid. One Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that vaccinated people who never had covid were at least three times as likely to be infected as unvaccinated people with prior infection. And a Lancet study found that those who were vaccinated but never had covid were four times as likely to have severe illness resulting in hospitalization or death compared to the unvaccinated who recovered from it.

Protection from natural immunity also wanes at a slower rate than from vaccination. A recent large Israeli study published in the New England Journal of Medicine compared two groups of people: one that had been vaccinated and never had covid before, and another that never received vaccines but had recently recovered from covid. The results are striking: Two months after their shots, members of the first group had twice the number of infections as the second. And after six months, the first group’s infection rate was nearly three times higher than the second’s.

An updated booster dose could temporarily increase effectiveness, but the Pentagon doesn’t require it. The existing mandate is for the first two doses, which most service members probably received a year and a half ago. If that’s all those individuals received, they are almost certainly less protected from covid than people who have had the virus.

Isn’t that interesting? Why didn’t anyone think of it sooner?

We’re being facetious, of course. We laypeople were out here suggesting that dismissing natural immunity was maybe a mistake, and the so-called “experts” were out there telling us that that’s not how The Science™ works.

Wow, the Washington Post finally published the truth about natural immunity in a piece by Leana Wen.

“…vaccinated people who never had covid were at least three times as likely to be infected as unvaccinated people with prior infection.”

— Eli Klein (@TheEliKlein) December 20, 2022

Gee.

So they’ll finally admit Rand Paul was right?

— The Royal We (@duderolls) December 20, 2022

Heh. Don’t hold your breath. Admitting that Rand Paul was right would no doubt be a bridge too far.

The media coverage of COVID-19 research on natural immunity has evolved from being banned on Twitter to being embraced by the same *experts* who applauded the original bans.

The only thing missing is the apologies and the commitment to not repeat the outrageous past mistakes.

— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) December 20, 2022

Learning from past mistakes? Where’s the fun in that?