Sen. Rand Paul - "I have immunity. I've already had the virus so I can't get it again..."

Am_I_Evil · May 6, 2020

Sen. Rand Paul won't wear mask, says he has immunity to coronavirus despite lack of evidence

While senators were anxious returning to Washington due to the coronavirus this week, at least two senators said they didn't need to wear masks.

www.usatoday.com

Paul dismissed news of a possible new strain of the virus, which he may still be susceptible to, saying there was no evidence of such new strains.

"It's not true," he said. "I can't get it again, nor can I transmit it, so of all the people you'll meet here I'm about the only safe person in Washington you'll meet."

Ummmm....yeah

if there was already a thread since this story appears to be from yesterday just blame it on Rand's stupidity...

T0M · May 6, 2020

Someone doesn't listen to the experts. It hasn't been proven that you can't get re-infected.

Besides, Moscow Mitch gotta put those judges through.

mikhailguy · May 6, 2020

isn't he technically a doctor?

ElectricBlanketFire · May 6, 2020

"despite lack of evidence" can be added to almost any headline from the past 4 years and it would be accurate.

Xando · May 6, 2020

Even if it mutated (which is heavily disputed) it's unlikely to mutate so much that previously infected have no immunity

ElectricBlanketFire · May 6, 2020

Xando said:
Even if it mutated (which is heavily disputed) it's unlikely to mutate so much that previously infected have no immunity

But we don't know and that's the point.

Joni · May 6, 2020

T0M said:
Someone doesn't listen to the experts. It hasn't been proven that you can't get re-infected.

It has been investigated, any case of possible reinfection was simply the test being oversensitive and finding the dead virus.

Veliladon · May 6, 2020

T0M said:
It hasn't been proven that you can't get re-infected.

It also hasn't been proven that a teapot doesn't exist between Earth and Mars. Asking people to prove a negative is a ridiculous demand. If it's proven to be the case then yeah, we need to take further caution and alter our behavior patterns but under normal circumstances Rand is all but right and there's nothing to say that this is any different from normal.

Mass Effect · May 6, 2020

mikhailguy said:
isn't he technically a doctor?

Ron Paul is a doctor. Not sure about Rand.

cdm00 · May 6, 2020

Rand Paul is gonna test positive again lol

Alucrid · May 6, 2020

i bet rand paul's neighbor is excited

captive · May 6, 2020

Mass Effect said:
Ron Paul is a doctor. Not sure about Rand.

IIRC he's an optometrist

and at present the evidence does point to him being correct that you can't get it again.

Xando · May 6, 2020

ElectricBlanketFire said:
But we don't know and that's the point.

What don't we know? We know there is immunity. We just don't know for how long.

Veliladon · May 6, 2020

ElectricBlanketFire said:
But we don't know and that's the point.

We don't know when any disease is going to go deadly or evade normal immune responses. It's maintaining prudency in the face of the risk and given the current spreading of the virus and that reinfection has been either purely anecdotal or false positives, it seems we have a rough consensus that this is operating under normal immunity rules.

Particle Physicist · May 6, 2020

captive said:
IIRC he's an optometrist

and at present the evidence does point to him being correct that you can't get it again.

that's not how immunity works. If you are immune to something you can still get it again. Your body is just effective at fighting it off. You can still potentially be able to transmit it to others during that time. It depends on how fast your body fights of the reinfection. Immunity allows your white blood cells to quickly identify an infection as an infection and hopefully fight it off faster. Sometimes that is so quick you don't get ill, sometimes that still may take a little bit of time but you don't get as sick as you would have without immunity.

SteveWinwood · May 6, 2020

ElectricBlanketFire said:
But we don't know and that's the point.

so if he had started with "it's most likely that" you wouldn't take any umbrage?

ElectricBlanketFire · May 6, 2020

SteveWinwood said:
so if he had started with "it's most likely that" you wouldn't take any umbrage?

...I can't tell if people are defending Rand Paul here or not.

WedgeX · May 6, 2020

Says who?

Or maybe he'll be a COVID- Rand and infect hundreds?

We just don't know.

Perkin_Warbeck · May 6, 2020

Even if he's immune, as a Senator, you'd think he would want to show leadership and set an example of model behavior.

Link · May 6, 2020

Regardless of the facts on immunity, it's become obvious that Republicans have decided not wearing a mask makes you a true patriot.

Someone get me out of here.

gutshot · May 6, 2020

I mean, based on our current understanding of the virus, he is correct. Still should probably be more tactful about it though.

Veliladon · May 6, 2020

ElectricBlanketFire said:
...I can't tell if people are defending Rand Paul here or not.

It shouldn't be about defending Rand Paul or not. If Obama or Bernie had said the same thing they'd be cavalier but just as right.

It's a Walter situation. He's not wrong, he's just an asshole. But because he's an asshole people want him to be wrong.

Grouch Douglass · May 6, 2020

I don't think its a consensus yet, but some scientists are confirming that reports of people being re-infected were due to faulty tests.

Recovered patients who tested positive for COVID-19 likely not reinfected

This phenomenon is likely due to the shortcomings of the coronavirus test, experts say

www.livescience.com

Deleted member 32822 · May 6, 2020

gutshot said:
I mean, based on our current understanding of the virus, he is correct. Still should probably be more tactful about it though.

This. Come on people.

RoninStrife · May 6, 2020

LOL man.. theres so many people that are in positions of power ..that seem to be so ignorant and dumb.

Can you get coronavirus twice or does it cause immunity?

President Trump tweeted that he could no longer get Covid-19 after testing positive during the election campaign

www.independent.co.uk

WHO says it cannot be definitively stated you cannot get re-infected.

Unless he's had the Oxford Vaccine, he could get it again .

6 monkeys given an experimental coronavirus vaccine from Oxford did not catch COVID-19 after heavy exposure, raising hopes for a human vaccine

A team from the University of Oxford is leading the way in the search for an effective vaccine for the coronavirus. Human trials started last week.

www.businessinsider.com

SteveWinwood · May 6, 2020

ElectricBlanketFire said:
...I can't tell if people are defending Rand Paul here or not.

just because he's evil and a moron doesn't inherently make every statement he says an absolute lie

Netherscourge · May 6, 2020

These are the morons running the country.

And voters elected these idiots multiple times.

Tobor · May 6, 2020

Veliladon said:
It shouldn't be about defending Rand Paul or not. If Obama or Bernie had said the same thing they'd be cavalier but just as right.

It's a Walter situation. He's not wrong, he's just an asshole. But because he's an asshole people want him to be wrong.

I think people are also scared and there is a lack of knowledge, which leads to an assumption that anything an asshole like Paul says is probably wrong by default. Which is his fault. He's been saying stupid shit for years.

SteveWinwood · May 6, 2020

Tobor said:
I think people are also scared and there is a lack of knowledge, which leads to an assumption that anything an asshole like Paul says is probably wrong by default. Which is his fault. He's been saying stupid shit for years.

you can treat it with intense skepticism sure

but if we started going after 'but we don't know for 100% certainty' im not sure the field of biology would even exist, or any science really

Deleted member 8752 · May 6, 2020

captive said:
IIRC he's an optometrist

and at present the evidence does point to him being correct that you can't get it again.

Do you have a source for that? Because there are cases where people have had it twice.

edit: I may have overstated this

Xando · May 6, 2020

Grouch Douglass said:
I don't think its a consensus yet, but some scientists are confirming that reports of people being re-infected were due to faulty tests.

Recovered patients who tested positive for COVID-19 likely not reinfected

This phenomenon is likely due to the shortcomings of the coronavirus test, experts say

www.livescience.com

South korean CDC confirmed the reinfections were faulty tests.

Joni · May 6, 2020

Particle Physicist said:
that's not how immunity works. If you are immune to something you can still get it again. Your body is just effective at fighting it off. You can still potentially be able to transmit it to others during that time. It depends on how fast your body fights of the reinfection. Immunity allows your white blood cells to quickly identify an infection as an infection and hopefully fight it off faster. Sometimes that is so quick you don't get ill, sometimes that still may take a little bit of time but you don't get as sick as you would have without immunity.

If immunity worked as you described it, how would herd immunity work? And I don't mean how would herd immunity work in a Covid context, I mean how would herd immunity work in general? Herd immunity as a concept works in that people are never incubated and thus can never transmit that virus.

maabus1999 · May 6, 2020

Even though he's been an ass through this entire ideal, there has not been any confirmed cases of re-infection of COVID-19. All theorized "re-infections" have been shown to be faulty tests.

Tobor · May 6, 2020

SteveWinwood said:
you can treat it with intense skepticism sure

but if we started going after 'but we don't know for 100% certainty' im not sure the field of biology would even exist, or any science really

Yeah, I get that. I'm just saying the problem is who is delivering the info. If it was Fauci saying this no one would bat an eye.

Yahsper · May 6, 2020

Veliladon said:
It also hasn't been proven that a teapot doesn't exist between Earth and Mars. Asking people to prove a negative is a ridiculous demand. If it's proven to be the case then yeah, we need to take further caution and alter our behavior patterns but under normal circumstances Rand is all but right and there's nothing to say that this is any different from normal.

Whilst technically true, there hardly has been enough time to do any serious concluding research on this. Its likely, but it's hardly been a couple of months. Way too early to draw definite conclusions, and dangerous coming from a person of authority in a still unstable situation.

Browser · May 6, 2020

ElectricBlanketFire said:
...I can't tell if people are defending Rand Paul here or not.

Its not defending the person, its contextualizing the statement he made. The person is irrelevant. It could be anyone. He was an asshole tho.

maxxpower · May 6, 2020

I'm still pissed that he survived without even breaking a sweat. He should have at least suffered a bit given how fucking careless he was. But karma don't exist so only the poor innocent people will die.

ebs · May 6, 2020

RoninStrife said:
LOL man.. theres so many people that are in positions of power ..that seem to be so ignorant and dumb.

Can you get coronavirus twice or does it cause immunity?

President Trump tweeted that he could no longer get Covid-19 after testing positive during the election campaign

www.independent.co.uk

WHO says it cannot be definitively stated you cannot get re-infected.

The WHO is a scientific organisation and won't definitively state anything until the relevant studies have been conducted and peer reviewed, which takes months.

The more relevant info to ponder is that there is absolutely nothing about COVID that makes it different to other viruses, so why are people running scared at the prospect of reinfection? Because anecdotal stories are being published by non-scientific media to get clicks.

dragonchild · May 6, 2020

Someone please tell my immune system that I can't get norovirus again after it put me in the hospital three times. What's good for the 'rona must be good for the noro, and Rand Paul knows more about viruses than viruses.

Lobster Roll · May 6, 2020

gutshot said:
I mean, based on our current understanding of the virus, he is correct. Still should probably be more tactful about it though.

This is the measured take everyone in this thread needs to read. The man is a moron, but this is the key takeaway.

kmfdmpig · May 6, 2020

ElectricBlanketFire said:
...I can't tell if people are defending Rand Paul here or not.

The argument isn't (or at least shouldn't be) about who is saying it but what they're saying. Someone could just as easily say "... I can't tell if people are rooting for COVID here or not." and it would be equally invalid as an argument.

The initial fear of reinfection came about primarily because of people in South Korea who were thought to have been reinfected. A few days ago South Korea's CDC came out and said that those weren't really reinfections but just flawed tests. Rand Paul is a dick but he's likely to be right about this and that's a good thing as reinfection would make COVID dramatically worse.

Christian · May 6, 2020

He could just wear a mask to set a good example. Aw, who am I kidding?

Veliladon · May 6, 2020

Yahsper said:
Whilst technically true, there hardly has been enough time to do any serious concluding research on this. Its likely, but it's hardly been a couple of months. Way too early to draw definite conclusions, and dangerous coming from a person of authority in a still unstable situation.

If there was going to be mass reinfections we would have started seeing it by now.

dragonchild said:
Someone please tell my immune system that I can't get norovirus again after it put me in the hospital three times. What's good for the 'rona must be good for the noro, and Rand Paul knows more about viruses than viruses.

First of all, are you immunocompromised or are you literally eating shit sandwiches?

Secondly, norovirus mutates quickly compared to SARS-CoV-2. We've been tracking the genome of SARS-CoV-2 and there hasn't been any appreciable change in the spike protein at all which is where most of the antibodies are hitting. It changes so little that people who suffered from SARS over 15 years ago have antibodies that are still effective against SARS-CoV-2.

SteveWinwood · May 6, 2020

Tobor said:
Yeah, I get that. I'm just saying the problem is who is delivering the info. If it was Fauci saying this no one would bat an eye.

yeah sorry i was agreeing, not trying to get after you

but between epistemology problems and humes induction i kind of never want to talk philosophy of science ever again, so maybe I'll just leave this thread lol

Zelas · May 6, 2020

Xando said:
What don't we know? We know there is immunity. We just don't know for how long.

*From the existing strain

As you also said, it hasnt been answered that any mutations are all covered too. Unlikely isn't a guarantee.

gutshot · May 6, 2020

Source for South Korean "re-infections" being determined to have been a flaw of the test they use there.

Tests in recovered patients found false positives, not reinfections, experts say

South Korea’s infectious disease experts said Thursday that dead virus fragments were the likely cause of over 260 people here testing positive again for the novel coronavirus days and even weeks after marking full recoveries. Oh Myoung-don, who leads the central clinical committee for...

www.koreaherald.com

cmalex23 · May 6, 2020

Isn't this moron a doctor?!

Joni · May 6, 2020

dragonchild said:
Someone please tell my immune system that I can't get norovirus again after it put me in the hospital three times. What's good for the 'rona must be good for the noro, and Rand Paul knows more about viruses than viruses.

He clearly knows more. He isn't comparing a single virus to an entire family. You are getting sick again because you are getting another norovirus. And the norovirus usually causes hospitalisation in people with a bad immune system.

captive · May 6, 2020

Peltz said:
Do you have a source for that? Because there are cases where people have had it twice.

this:

Xando said:
South korean CDC confirmed the reinfections were faulty tests.

south korean research so far believes that you can't get it twice. Like i said at this time the evidence says such.

Deleted member 2802 · May 6, 2020

cmalex23 said:
Isn't this moron a doctor?!

Paul dropped out of Baylor without completing his baccalaureate degree, when he was accepted into his father's alma mater, the Duke University School of Medicine, which, at the time, did not require an undergraduate degree for admission to its graduate school. He earned an M.D. degree in 1988 and completed his residency in 1993.

Maybe he's a genius.

Sen. Rand Paul - "I have immunity. I've already had the virus so I can't get it again..."

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