GOP doc dispenses sketchy medical advice on virus immunity

Late last month, he joined lawmakers pushing unsupported theories about COVID-19 immunity. He and 14 other GOP doctors, dentists and pharmacists in Congress sent a letter to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urging the agency, when setting vaccination policies, to consider natural immunity in people who have had the virus.

The signers included Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist, and Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as doctor and medical adviser to Trump. Most are from states or districts that Trump carried by wide margins last year.

Experts agree that natural immunity arises after an infection, but the general medical consensus is that the degree of protection varies from person to person and is likely to wane over time. That's why the CDC currently urges even those who've had the virus to get vaccinated. A CDC report released in August found the vaccine did boost protection among those who've recovered from the infection. Studies released in September showed that unvaccinated people were 11 times more likely to die than the vaccinated.

The August CDC report cited a study of Kentucky residents and said, “The findings from this study suggest that among previously infected persons, full vaccination is associated with reduced likelihood of reinfection, and, conversely, being unvaccinated is associated with higher likelihood of being reinfected.”

Marshall disputes the guidance that people who've had COVID-19 should get vaccinated. In a recent AP interview, he noted his adult children have had COVID-19 and, “I don't think they need the vaccine on top of it."

He argued that the issue requires more investigation: “We could get 20 scientists in here and have a two-hour discussion about it.”

Keller, the GOP consultant, said he sees a political incentive for Marshall and other lawmakers to focus on the issue of natural immunity. That challenges the Biden administration policies without attacking vaccines, Keller said.

“Smart Republicans realize that there's a certain amount of trust in the wider electorate in the vaccine,” Keller said.

Marshall says that as a practicing obstetrician and as a local health department director, he followed the CDC's guidance on issues such as flu shots not harming pregnant women. But he says he's lost trust in the CDC because of mixed messages early in the pandemic about masks: “It was a tough time for the CDC. It was a tough time for all of us.”

Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and former Baltimore health commissioner, said vaccine mandates “clearly work” in containing COVID-19.

“Vaccination is what we have because the price of getting immunity through natural infection is much too high,” Wen said, adding that she fears people doing something akin to the “chicken pox parties” some parents have had for their children. “We certainly would not want a policy that could lead people to choose to be infected.”

Sabrina Pass, who lives in a small town northwest of Fort Riley, Kansas, said she supports Marshall's positions and said a candidate's willingness to actively fight vaccine mandates will be important to her. She is a 37-year-old U.S. Department of Defense employee, the mother of two teenagers and a registered Republican. She sees protests against school mask mandates as “awesome.”

But Dr. Beth Oller, a family physician in Rooks County in northwest Kansas, said she's frustrated because Marshall’s medical degree is one reason patients who normally trust her about everything else resist her advice to get vaccinated. Musing that “I really don't think he's that stupid,” she said he knows how immunity works and why people need flu shots and tetanus boosters.

"He should just be ashamed of himself," Oller said.