When the vaccine rollout began in mid-December 2020, more than one quarter of Americans—91 million—had been infected with SARS-CoV-2, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate.
As of this May, that proportion had risen to more than a third of the population, including 44% of adults aged 18-59
The substantial number of infections, coupled with the increasing scientific evidence that natural immunity was durable, led some medical observers to ask why natural immunity didn’t seem to be factored into decisions about prioritising vaccination.
“The CDC could say [to people who had recovered], very well grounded in excellent data, that you should wait 8 months,” [said infectious disease expert] Monica Gandhi… She suggested authorities ask people to “please wait your turn.”
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Still, the CDC instructed everyone, regardless of previous infection, to get fully vaccinated as soon as they were eligible.
As more US employers, local governments, and educational institutions issue vaccine mandates that make no exception for those who have had covid-19, questions remain about the science and ethics of treating this group of people as equally vulnerable to the virus—or as equally threatening to those vulnerable to covid-19—and to what extent politics has played a role.
