The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness
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Natural immunity to covid is powerful. Policymakers seem afraid to say so.

People making decisions about their health deserve honesty from their leaders.

Perspective by
Marty Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, editor-in-chief of Medpage Today, and author of “The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care — and How to Fix It."
September 15, 2021 at 12:45 p.m. EDT
President Biden visits the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health in February, with Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and NIH director Francis Collins listening. (Evan Vucci/AP)
correction

A previous version of this article erroneously said Spectrum Health is in Detroit. It is in Grand Rapids, Mich. The article has been corrected.

It’s okay to have an incorrect scientific hypothesis. But when new data proves it wrong, you have to adapt. Unfortunately, many elected leaders and public health officials have held on far too long to the hypothesis that natural immunity offers unreliable protection against covid-19 — a contention that is being rapidly debunked by science.