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Senator Rand Paul says he will not get a Covid-19 vaccine because he already had the virus, flouting the advice of experts on the disease.
“Until they show me evidence that people who have already had the infection are dying in large numbers, or being hospitalized or getting very sick, I just made my own personal decision that I’m not getting vaccinated because I’ve already had the disease and I have natural immunity,” Mr Paul told the conservative talk radio station WABC.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say people should still get vaccinated even if they’ve previously contracted the virus, because little is known about how long the resulting natural immunity lasts.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious diseases expert, has also said vaccines provide stronger protection than that immunity.
“Vaccines are highly efficacious,” Dr Fauci said at a recent White House pandemic briefing. “They are better than the response you get from natural infection.”
The Kentucky Republican contracted the coronavirus in March 2020, just as the pandemic was beginning to affect the United States. He was the first known senator to get infected, and tested positive just days after his father, former senator Ron Paul, publicly suggested the virus wasn’t real.
“People should ask themselves whether this coronavirus ‘pandemic’ could be a big hoax,” the elder Mr Paul wrote on his website, “with the actual danger of the disease massively exaggerated by those who seek to profit – financially or politically – from the ensuing panic.”
Since then, over 589,000 Americans have died of the virus, and more than 33 million have contracted it, including Senator Paul.
Mr Paul has repeatedly sparred with Covid-19 experts about the virus, including with Dr Fauci at a combative congressional hearing. He was also the only senator of either party to oppose the first Covid relief bill, and has fiercely opposed lockdowns, mask mandates, and other measures to contain the pandemic.
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