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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., stepped up his criticism of Dr. Anthony Faucis call for Americans to continue wearing masks after receiving their COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesday, citing a study that found evidence that vaccinated or recovered individuals had protection against COVID-19 variants.

Paul, an eye doctor by training, has been a prominent critic of Faucis guidance that Americans should wear masks even after vaccination while scientists work to understand the effects that emergent COVID-19 variants have on immunity. In his latest salvo against the infectious disease expert, Paul linked to a pre-print of a study by the National Institute of Health.

"Dr. Fauci, great news! T cell immunity after natural infection shown to include variants," Paul wrote on Twitter. "Do we still need to wear multiple masks after weve recovered or been vaccinated?"

The study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, found that "virtually all anti-SARS-CoV-2 CD8+ T-cell responses should recognize these newly described variants." The studys authors noted that its findings were based on a limited sample size.

In February, Fauci warned it was "possible" that Americans would need to wear masks into next year. He has also suggested that wearing two masks makes "common sense" to provide additional protection against the virus.

Faucis warnings have rankled Paul, who argued at a Senate hearing earlier this month that the call by the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for continued mask-wearing amounted to "theater."

"You want to get rid of vaccine hesitancy? Tell them you can quit wearing your mask after they get the vaccine," Paul said. "You want people to get the vaccine? Give them a reward instead of telling them that the nanny state's going to be there for three more years and you got to wear a mask forever. People don't want to hear it. Theres no science behind it."

"Well, let me just state for the record that masks are not theater," Fauci said in response. "Masks are protective."

"If you have immunity, they're theater," Paul said. "If you already have immunity you're wearing a mask to give comfort to others."

"I totally disagree with you," Fauci replied.

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In a March 21 tweet, Paul linked to another study published on the JAMA Network, which he said showed "vaccines and naturally acquired immunity DO effectively neutralize COVID variants."

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Rand Paul mocks Fauci over advocacy of mask use after vaccination - Fox News

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Americans have suffered too long from this pandemic. But we can see a new day dawning on the horizon. Coronavirus infections are on the decline, and with three different vaccines now on the market, an end to the pandemic is within reach.

Our economy is beginning to recover as people return to work. The unemployment rate plummeted from nearly 15 percent last April to just over 6 percent this February. State lockdowns are finally being lifted and our economy is getting back on its feet.

Unfortunately, some lawmakers intend to exploit this critical time in order to pass a partisan goody bag the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or the PRO Act that solely benefits labor unions while ignoring the rights of millions of American workers.

BIDEN'S $2.5T INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN INCLUDES PRO-UNION LEGISLATION

The PRO Act would, among other things, likely reclassify countless independent contractors as employees under the National Labor Relations Act. This reclassification would rob millions of workers of the right to set their own terms and schedule their own work hours. The bill would also strike down right-to-work laws in 27 states, including Kentuckys, which guarantee every worker has the free and fair choice to join a union, as our president put it.

It would also force employers to hand over their employees' private information including cellphone numbers and home addresses to union organizers, exposing them to harassment and intimidation. This bill not only erodes the privacy rights of workers but strips them of their ability to vote both on a union contract and through a secret ballot over whether to unionize.

This harmful legislation could not come at a worse time. Lawmakers should know this. The PRO Act represents a massive upheaval in our labor market and erases more than 70 years of established labor law. It would undermine the livelihoods of tens of millions of independent contractors at a time when they can least afford it.

SEN. LEE WANTS TO STRIP NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD OF POWER

If you want to see how this legislation would work in practice, look no further than Californias Assembly Bill 5, a law passed in late 2019 intended to reclassify most of the states independent contractors. AB 5 employs what is called an ABC test that regulators use to determine which independent contractors would be pushed into traditional employment the same test the PRO Act would implement.

The laws supporters never seemed to wonder whether these workers might prefer their flexible arrangements or if businesses could afford this costly mandate.

The law further worsened California's lackluster job numbers, forcing thousands of freelancers out of work entirely. It subjected photographers to onerous and frankly bizarre mandates limiting the number of pictures they could send to clients.

The law also made it nearly impossible for optometrists, yoga instructors, pharmacists, writers, speech therapists, and wedding planners among countless other professions to take on more clients as independent contractors.

It didn't matter how hard lawmakers hoped clients would place them on the payroll as their own employees. Vox Media, for example, was forced to lay off hundreds of its California-based freelance writers, hiring only a tiny fraction of them back for full and part-time work. Now, some in Congress want to recreate this on a national scale with the PRO Act.

WHAT ARE RIGHT TO WORK LAWS?

Supporters of the bill claim companies are exploiting independent contractors. But there's simply no evidence for that claim. In fact, nearly 80 percent of independent contractors say they prefer their flexible work arrangements.

Why should we assume members of Congress understand the interests of these workers better than they do?

Whats more, this bill gets the facts of right-to-work laws dead wrong. Right-to-work states typically experience faster manufacturing and overall job growth, greater growth in household consumption, and higher disposable and overall cost of living adjusted incomes. That's why 74 members of the House of Representatives have signed onto the National Right to Work Act with 16 senators supporting the Senate version which would ensure that union membership is purely voluntary and will protect workers from being fired if they opt-out of joining a union.

Unfortunately, the PRO Act would represent a step backward in the progress we've made since the pandemic hit our shores and make it more difficult for Americans to earn a living for themselves and their families. The American people oppose its provisions. Lawmakers should, too.

READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS BY CLICKING HERE

Rand Paul is a U.S. Senator representing Kentucky. Tim Phillips is the President of Americans for Prosperity.

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Sen. Rand Paul & AFP's Tim Phillips: The PRO ACT undermines workers' rights at the worst possible time - Fox Business

Texas knows how to change the minds and behavior of its citizens white males included. Just think of the wildly successful Dont Mess With Texas ad campaign that helped tamp down littering. Gov. Greg Abbotts office could do a world of good by launching a similar campaign to convince Texans of the truth that vaccines save lives, including perhaps their own.

Now that Texas becoming the first large state to open coronavirus vaccine eligibility to its entire adult population, we have to find a way to reach a certain faction of white male Republicans who are insisting they intend to spurn the shot. According to a recent NPR/PBS/Marist poll, 49 percent of GOP men said they are not planning to get vaccinated. That startling number, higher than in any other demographic, is in contrast to only 6 percent of Democratic men saying no. Other polls report similar findings.

The vaccine naysayers apparently are unmoved by the fact that theyre not only risking their own health, but also the health of family, friends and the broader community. Their stubbornness threatens to stymie the nations efforts to reach COVID-19 herd immunity, the only way were going to put this dreadful pandemic behind us.

If Republican men have dismissed Dr. Anthony Fauci, now that hes working under the Biden administration, maybe they will listen to our local, plainspoken and trusted vaccine scientist, Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine. Both experts believe that herd immunity will require vaccinating between 70 percent and 85 percent of the population. Men of the GOP are standing in the way, for what appears to be no good reason, just politics.

They arent entirely alone. Some Americans, wary of a history of exploitation at the hands of unethical medical authorities, have also proven reluctant to be vaccinated. Reassuring Black Americans has been a top priority for public health officials for months now. But those same efforts have fallen flat among Republican men. Perhaps its because a certain immediate past president who made sure he and his wife got their shots, albeit in secret, still has their ear (and their arm). Perhaps these men are listening to Rand Paul, the maskless GOP senator from Kentucky who prefers picking a political fight with Fauci to finding ways to defeat a devastating pandemic. Maybe the holdouts have fallen into the clutches of a shameless Tucker Carlson, who stokes his Fox News ratings by accusing government health experts of lying about vaccine efficacy.

None of these carnival barkers have these mens best interest in mind. And their objections plus the ridiculous conspiracy theories bandied about on social media are taking their toll and risk ruining what might otherwise be a major accomplishment by Texas. Our hope is that the GOP skeptics will relent, particularly when they see more and more family members and acquaintances getting vaccinated with no lasting ill effects, more and more friends hugging grandkids, boarding flights and dining at restaurants without fear.

Vaccine holdouts, we implore you to join those who have been freed from the bonds of this pandemic.

We urge churches and synagogues, fraternal organizations, civic groups and, yes, political parties to encourage their members to get the shot. Point them toward the Texas Department of State Health Services websites links to vaccine hub providers across Texas. Print readers: just Google Texas vaccine signup to find the DSHS vaccine page.

In Houston, were fortunate to have Dr. Hotez, who recently co-authored a paper with 17 other vaccine experts that corrected much misinformation. Despite the accelerated timetables, for instance, the new COVID-19 vaccines have been proven safe. Tens of thousands of volunteers served as test subjects in those trials, an effort equivalent to other large trials in the past. The work to develop the vaccines didnt begin last year it relied on decades of previous research on coronaviruses.

Oh, and the vaccine doesnt change your DNA, despite what youve heard. While mRNA in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines does enter the cell, it doesnt enter the cells nucleus, where our DNA is kept.

Lastly, while some claim the vaccines arent worth it because they cant entirely eliminate the chance of getting the virus, the vaccines in the U.S. are highly effective at keeping you alive and out of the hospital if you get it. Preliminary research also shows that if you are vaccinated, you have a smaller chance of spreading the virus to someone else.

Bottom line: all of us, from politicians to doctors to concerned sons and daughters, need to persuade the vaccine-skittish among us to step up and do their patriotic duty. To do otherwise, as conservative columnist Kathleen Parker has gently suggested, is just plain dumb but more importantly, potentially deadly.

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TEXAS VIEW: Too many GOP men are refusing to get the COVID vaccine - Odessa American

Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

Sorry Dr Fauci and other fearmongers, new study shows vaccines and naturally acquired immunity DO effectively neutralize COVID variants. Good news for everyone but bureaucrats and petty tyrants!

Sen. Rand Paul in a tweet, March 21, 2021

That Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky often disagrees with infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is well known.

This story was produced in partnership withPolitiFact. It can be republished for free.

Recently, the pair clashed at a Senate hearing when Paul, a Republican, argued against mask recommendations for people who have had covid-19 or have been vaccinated against it.

At the hearing, Fauci, President Joe Bidens chief medical adviser, pushed back against Pauls characterization of wearing masks as theater. Continued caution is advised, Fauci said, as scientists study the new variants now circulating in the U.S. and other countries.

Paul, an eye doctor by training, continued the squabble a few days later, calling out Fauci in a tweet, pointing to a study that he said shows vaccines and naturally acquired immunity DO effectively neutralize COVID variants.

The tweet linked to a study published online at the JAMA Network, a family of specialty medical journals.

We reached out to Pauls office for additional sources for his tweet but did not receive a reply.

So, we asked the experts: Are covid variants effectively neutralized by vaccines or natural immunity conferred on people who recover from the illness?

In short, the research cited by Paul does show good blood levels of neutralizing antibodies against at least some of the current variants following infection or vaccination. But theyre not the whole story.

Mehul S. Suthar, an author of the study Paul cited, said the results are encouraging but should not be seen as all-encompassing: Our interpretation is that our study looks at one aspect of immune response, antibodies.

Small Samples. Big Questions.

Neutralizing antibodies are important because they can block the ability of a virus like the one that causes covid to infect cells. But the body also has other defenses. T cells, for example, can be spurred by infection or vaccination, Suthar said, although the study was not designed to look at those.

For the study, researchers gathered blood samples from 40 people who were in the hospital with covid or had recovered from it. From the National Institutes of Health, they also received blood samples drawn from 14 people who had gotten both doses of the Moderna vaccine, said Suthar, an assistant professor at Emory Universitys vaccine center.

Then they ran tests on those samples against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and three variants, including the one dubbed B.1.1.7, which first appeared in the United Kingdom and is now circulating widely in the U.S.

They wanted to know: Did antibodies produced by being infected or vaccinated neutralize B.1.1.7?

We are lucky with B.1.1.7 that our antibodies appear to work well against this virus, Suthar said.

However, as with any study, there are caveats. For one thing, the results were based on a small number of samples. And the analysis did not include other variants of concern, such as the ones that emerged in South Africa and Brazil, which limits the ability to draw broad conclusions.

Finally, antibodies are just one measure of potential protection against disease. Laboratory research measuring antibodies indicates that some immunity is created by both illness and vaccination, but the strength and longevity of that protection the effectiveness in the real world is a separate question. Thats partly because the ideal level of neutralizing antibodies needed for protection is not known and other immune protections, such as T cells, arent measured.

Also, in the real world, other factors such as the variant a person is exposed to, and the presence of other mitigating factors, including masks and good ventilation can make a difference.

Part of the reason that real-world data are so important is looking at the whole picture of immunity, said Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Also, with the level of community transmissions of disease, I would be concerned that there will be more variants that emerge.

Nuance Matters

Pauls tweet taking aim at what he sees as an overcautious approach by public health experts doesnt capture that type of nuance, nor does it reference studies on the other emerging variants.

Blanket assertions made by non-scientific experts are not going to help, said Gronvall.

Dr. Jesse Goodman, professor of medicine and a specialist in infectious diseases at Georgetown University, agreed.

Its wrong to declare victory and say theres no problem with variants and that everyone previously infected will be fine, said Goodman, who served as chief scientist of the Food and Drug Administration under the Obama administration.

Viruses naturally mutate as they replicate. So its not surprising that the coronavirus has done so. Several variants have emerged, including home-grown ones from California and New York.

Lab tests on blood samples from vaccine trial participants in South Africa showed lower levels of neutralizing antibody production, possibly related to the variant circulating there.

How big a difference the lower levels measured in those samples make isnt yet known.

Levels are still high and could effectively neutralize the virus, Fauci wrote in an editorial published Feb. 11 in JAMA.

Even so, clinical trials used to test covid vaccines before they were approved for emergency use showed lower efficacy when tested in areas where the South African variant was circulating.

We expect vaccines and prior infection to offer significant protection against variants that are closely related, said Goodman. But as they become more genetically different like the South African one that protection could go down.

The main goal of the vaccines is to prevent hospitalization and death, and all the vaccines in use in the U.S. appear to substantially reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from covid, according to research.

Even if the current vaccines may not be perfect, they do appear to prevent more severe outcomes, Goodman said.

Dont assume, as Pauls tweet implies, that recovering from covid or getting vaccinated means zero risk of infection.

For one thing, reinfection is rare but can occur.

Goodman pointed to a recent study conducted in Denmark showing that a small percentage (0.65%) of people who tested positive for covid in the spring fell ill again.

People should not presume that even if they had the vaccine or were previously infected that theres no future risk, Goodman said.

Even though no vaccine is 100% effective, Gronvall at Hopkins said not to use that as an excuse to avoid inoculation.

The vaccines appear to be great, she said. Get one when you can.

Our Ruling

Paul is correct that the JAMA study showed vaccination or previous infection appeared, based on a small sample of people, to help neutralize the virus. However, he left out important details that make his position an oversimplification of a complicated issue.

The study considered only one variant the one that emerged in the U.K. and did not include an analysis of other types now circulating, or the potential for additional variants that could emerge. Also, the type of antibody studied is just one factor in protecting against disease, and just what those levels of neutralizing antibodies measured in a laboratory experiment may mean in the real world is not known.

So, for those reasons, we rate the senators statement Half True.

Telephone interview with Mehul S. Suthar, assistant professor at the Emory Vaccine Center, March 22, 2021

Telephone interview with Gigi Gronvall, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and associate professor in the environmental health and engineering department at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, March 23, 2021

Telephone interview with Jesse Goodman, professor of medicine at Georgetown University and former chief scientist of the Food and Drug Administration, March 24, 2021

JAMA Network, Neutralizing Antibodies Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants After Infection and Vaccination, March 19, 2021

CNN Politics, Masks Are Not Theater, Fauci Tells Sen. Rand Paul in Hearing Exchange, March 18, 2021

The New England Journal of Medicine, Neutralizing Activity of BNT162b2-Elicited Serum, March 8, 2021

The New England Journal of Medicine, Serum Neutralizing Activity Elicited by mRNA-1273 Vaccine, March 17, 2021

Yale Medicine, Comparing the COVID-19 Vaccines: How Are They Different?, updated March 25, 2021

Fast Company, Can I Get Covid-19 Twice? New Lancet Study Offers Insight on Reinfection Rates, March 22, 2021

JAMA Network, SARS-CoV-2 Viral Variants Tackling a Moving Target, editorial, Feb. 11, 2021

View post:
In His Continued Sparring With Fauci, Sen. Rand Paul Oversimplified the Science - Kaiser Health News

Sorry Dr Fauci and other fearmongers, new study shows vaccines and naturally acquired immunity DO effectively neutralize COVID variants. Good news for everyone but bureaucrats and petty tyrants!

Sen. Rand Paul in a tweet, March 21, 2021

That Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky often disagrees with infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is well known.

This story was produced in partnership with PolitiFact. It can be republished for free.

Recently, the pair clashed at a Senate hearing when Paul, a Republican, argued against mask recommendations for people who have had COVID-19 or have been vaccinated against it.

At the hearing, Fauci, President Joe Bidens chief medical adviser, pushed back against Pauls characterization of wearing masks as theater. Continued caution is advised, Fauci said, as scientists study the new variants now circulating in the U.S. and other countries.

Paul, an eye doctor by training, continued the squabble a few days later, calling out Fauci in a tweet, pointing to a study that he said shows vaccines and naturally acquired immunity DO effectively neutralize COVID variants.

The tweet linked to a study published online at the JAMA Network, a family of specialty medical journals.

We reached out to Pauls office for additional sources for his tweet but did not receive a reply.

So, we asked the experts: Are COVID variants effectively neutralized by vaccines or natural immunity conferred on people who recover from the illness?

In short, the research cited by Paul does show good blood levels of neutralizing antibodies against at least some of the current variants following infection or vaccination. But theyre not the whole story.

Mehul S. Suthar, an author of the study Paul cited, said the results are encouraging but should not be seen as all-encompassing: Our interpretation is that our study looks at one aspect of immune response, antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies are important because they can block the ability of a virus like the one that causes COVID to infect cells. But the body also has other defenses. T cells, for example, can be spurred by infection or vaccination, Suthar said, although the study was not designed to look at those.

For the study, researchers gathered blood samples from 40 people who were in the hospital with COVID or had recovered from it. From the National Institutes of Health, they also received blood samples drawn from 14 people who had gotten both doses of the Moderna vaccine, said Suthar, an assistant professor at Emory Universitys vaccine center.

Then they ran tests on those samples against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and three variants, including the one dubbed B.1.1.7, which first appeared in the United Kingdom and is now circulating widely in the U.S.

They wanted to know: Did antibodies produced by being infected or vaccinated neutralize B.1.1.7?

We are lucky with B.1.1.7 that our antibodies appear to work well against this virus, Suthar said.

However, as with any study, there are caveats. For one thing, the results were based on a small number of samples. And the analysis did not include other variants of concern, such as the ones that emerged in South Africa and Brazil, which limits the ability to draw broad conclusions.

Finally, antibodies are just one measure of potential protection against disease. Laboratory research measuring antibodies indicates that some immunity is created by both illness and vaccination, but the strength and longevity of that protection the effectiveness in the real world is a separate question. Thats partly because the ideal level of neutralizing antibodies needed for protection is not known and other immune protections, such as T cells, arent measured.

Also, in the real world, other factors such as the variant a person is exposed to, and the presence of other mitigating factors, including masks and good ventilation can make a difference.

Part of the reason that real-world data are so important is looking at the whole picture of immunity, said Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Also, with the level of community transmissions of disease, I would be concerned that there will be more variants that emerge.

Pauls tweet taking aim at what he sees as an overcautious approach by public health experts doesnt capture that type of nuance, nor does it reference studies on the other emerging variants.

Blanket assertions made by non-scientific experts are not going to help, said Gronvall.

Dr. Jesse Goodman, professor of medicine and a specialist in infectious diseases at Georgetown University, agreed.

Its wrong to declare victory and say theres no problem with variants and that everyone previously infected will be fine, said Goodman, who served as chief scientist of the Food and Drug Administration under the Obama administration.

Viruses naturally mutate as they replicate. So its not surprising that the coronavirus has done so. Several variants have emerged, including home-grown ones from California and New York.

Lab tests on blood samples from vaccine trial participants in South Africa showed lower levels of neutralizing antibody production, possibly related to the variant circulating there.

How big a difference the lower levels measured in those samples make isnt yet known.

Levels are still high and could effectively neutralize the virus, Fauci wrote in an editorial published Feb. 11 in JAMA.

Even so, clinical trials used to test COVID vaccines before they were approved for emergency use showed lower efficacy when tested in areas where the South African variant was circulating.

We expect vaccines and prior infection to offer significant protection against variants that are closely related, said Goodman. But as they become more genetically different like the South African one that protection could go down.

The main goal of the vaccines is to prevent hospitalization and death, and all the vaccines in use in the U.S. appear to substantially reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID, according to research.

Even if the current vaccines may not be perfect, they do appear to prevent more severe outcomes, Goodman said.

Dont assume, as Pauls tweet implies, that recovering from COVID or getting vaccinated means zero risk of infection.

For one thing, reinfection is rare but can occur.

Goodman pointed to a recent study conducted in Denmark showing that a small percentage (0.65%) of people who tested positive for COVID in the spring fell ill again.

People should not presume that even if they had the vaccine or were previously infected that theres no future risk, Goodman said.

Even though no vaccine is 100% effective, Gronvall at Hopkins said not to use that as an excuse to avoid inoculation.

The vaccines appear to be great, she said. Get one when you can.

Paul is correct that the JAMA study showed vaccination or previous infection appeared, based on a small sample of people, to help neutralize the virus. However, he left out important details that make his position an oversimplification of a complicated issue.

The study considered only one variant the one that emerged in the U.K. and did not include an analysis of other types now circulating, or the potential for additional variants that could emerge. Also, the type of antibody studied is just one factor in protecting against disease, and just what those levels of neutralizing antibodies measured in a laboratory experiment may mean in the real world is not known.

So, for those reasons, we rate the senators statement Half True.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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Analysis: In his continued sparring with Fauci, Sen. Rand Paul oversimplified the science - Grand Forks Herald