The Public Health Director for Larimer County, Tom Gonzales, recently wrote an opinion column on COVID-19. His information on the impact the Delta variant has had on the current spread of the disease in the county is valid data which we all must consider. However, I have strong reservations with his solution, which is calling for “near universal vaccination.” This policy fails to consider all of the evidence and looks more like a commercial for the CDC’s tired and not-so-true line that vaccines are the only way out of this epidemic.

Vaccines have an important role to play in protecting those who are most vulnerable to the worst possible effects of COVID-19. But the most current studies are showing that vaccines do not provide long term protection. Universal vaccination will not get us “back to normal,” it will create a new normal where the entire population will be subject to endless booster shots, which amounts to more experimentation than many of us are willing to accept. More evidence is showing that natural immunity, for the millions of people in our country who have recovered from the disease, is more lasting and more effective than the vaccines. Natural immunity should be officially recognized as at least the equivalent of vaccination.

Additionally, there has been a strong resistance on the part of the medical establishment to allow the use of many treatments that have shown to be useful, but are not the latest, greatest, and most expensive solutions from Big Pharma. I detect  more corporate greed and less medical compassion from policies that discourage, or outright ban in too many situations, the use of off patent drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Doctors need all of the tools for treatment, not just the ones that are the most profitable.

Finally, calls for businesses and institutions to require vaccinations, especially when there is not any acknowledgment that natural immunity is also a significant protection from transmitting the disease, is chillingly close to a tyrannical society where individual freedom is repressed and the government and institutions such as the tech giants, hospital systems, and big corporate businesses overwhelm our values of freedom and self-determination, upon which our nation was founded and has flourished.

COVID-19 is a severe problem. There is no single, simple solution. Universal vaccinations are not the right answer. An “all of the above” policy is much closer to what will get us back to normal. This means more freedom to choose the right path for each individual and family, less restrictions on what treatments doctors can give to their patients, and an open acceptance that natural immunity is a reasonable alternative to the requirement of universal vaccinations.