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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

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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

WASHINGTON Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has become the latest and biggest-name Republican to be appearing at next months Save America Summit hosted by the group that staged the Jan. 6 rally that fed into the attack on the Capitol.

Women for America First leader Amy Kremer announced Pauls appearance at the April 8-11 event she is hosting at former President Donald Trumps financially troubled property near the Miami airport. Hell be discussing his common sense #Electionintegrity plan to make sure Nov 2020 NEVER happens again, according to a post on the groups Twitter account.

Election integrity is the phrase many Republicans have been using to describe their efforts across dozens of states to impose new voting restrictions, typically based on the lie started by Trump that massive voter fraud had allowed Democrats to steal the election from him.

In fact, Trumps own attorney general at the time, William Barr, said there was no evidence of that, and Trumps own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency declared the Nov. 3 election the most secure in American history.

Pauls office did not respond to HuffPost queries about the event.

Other expected speakers include Republican House members Byron Donalds and Kat Cammack, of Florida, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia.

Cammacks and Greenes offices did not respond to HuffPost queries. A spokesman for Rep. Donalds said that he did not believe that Trump or anyone else at the Jan. 6 rally was responsible for inciting what happened at the Capitol shortly afterward.

Kremers Doral summit, which shares the same name as Trumps political committee and the Jan. 6 rally adjacent to the White House, coincides with a Republican National Committee donor retreat 75 miles to the north in Palm Beach. Trump is hosting his appearance at the RNC meeting at his own Mar-a-Lago country club. It is unclear whether he will be appearing at Kremers event at his golf resort in Doral.

Depending on how many people attend, Kremers event could put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the cash registers at the resort, which began suffering from the backlash to Trumps actions and words as president even before the arrival of the pandemic last year.

Chip Somodevilla via Getty ImagesSen. Rand Paul, right, gives a fist bump to then-President Donald Trump while praising the president during a campaign rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport October 28, 2020, in Goodyear, Arizona.

Neither Kremer nor Women for America First responded to HuffPost questions about the upcoming summit.

She and her group were the main sponsor of the Save America rally where Trump urged attendees to march on the Capitol and intimidate then-Vice President Mike Pence and Congress into overturning the election he had lost by 7 million votes and nevertheless installing him for a second term.

Before Trump took the stage, Kremer was repeating the same lies that Trump had started spreading the night of the election, claiming that he had won and it had been stolen from him.

We know that there was voter fraud, we absolutely know it and thats why were here, to stop the steal, Kremer told the crowd gathered on the Ellipse. Were not going to let them steal an election. You guys, we cannot back down.

Not long afterward, thousands of Trump supporters broke through police barriers around the Capitol. Some 800 entered the building itself in an attempt to carry out Trumps demand that Congress stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the winner. One police officer died in the aftermath, and 140 others were injured. Two officers died by suicide after the event.

How much, precisely, Kremers group spent on its various pro-Trump events or how much it will be spending at Trumps Doral golf course may not be known for years. Nor can it determined how much Kremer is paying herself. The group was registered as a nonprofit in Virginia on Feb. 6, 2019, but no annual tax returns are yet on file at the IRS website.

Kremer paid herself $306,268 from a handful of super PACs she helped run between 2010 and 2019, including the Tea Party Express and the pro-Trump Great America PAC, according to Federal Election Commission records. She paid her daughter, Kylie Kremer, who is also an officer in the Women for America First group and who also appeared at the Jan. 6 rally, an additional $11,250.

Kremer, however, stopped filing required reports for her latest super PAC, Women Vote Smart PAC, a year ago, according to FEC records. One former employee said on condition of anonymity that he and a handful of his colleagues were owed a total of about $16,000 by the committee but were never paid when she devoted her attention to her new nonprofit, Women for America First.

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Rand Paul Latest Republican Attending Summit Hosted By ...

Free, fair, and secure elections are the bedrock of a democracy. In the wake of the 2020 election, it has never been more apparent that significant work needs to be done to ensure Americans, regardless of party affiliation, have trust and confidence in our electoral process. We witnessed significant voting irregularities, last-minute changes, and numerous instances of officials setting aside state election law, amongst a host of other troubling patterns. While state legislatures are beginning to take action to reform vulnerabilities that currently exist, the U.S. Congress is trying to make a power grab to federalize elections and unconstitutionally impose unnecessary, dangerous and unwise mandates on the states. Join us for a timely and important discussion with Senator Rand Paul on states efforts on election reform and an update on H.R. 1: The For the People Act of 2021, that just passed the House and has a looming vote in the Senate.

>>>The Facts About H.R. 1: The For the People Act of 2021

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VIRTUAL EVENT: Safeguarding our Elections: A Conversation with Sen. Rand Paul - Heritage.org

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul sounded off Monday on "Fox News Primetime", saying that medical professionals liketop Biden adviser Dr. Anthony Fauciwant Americans to wear masks without questioning the State.

Cloth masks don't work. The N95 masks work. You won't see a doctor in a hospital going into a covid patient's room with a cloth mask because they don't want to get the disease.

Yet, half of the country is running around with Fauci wearing a bunch of cloth masks all over his face saying they work when in reality he knows they don't work -- it's about civility, submission, it's about having you do what you are told without thinking or questioning the state.

You know, as much as the left wants to completely different narrative, history is going to record that there was a miracle that occurred in getting this vaccine.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW

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Rand Paul: Fauci, others preaching about masks isn't about ...