If You’ve Had COVID, Don’t Get Vaccinated with Dr. Hooman Noorchashm

Now that we are entering the last transition phase of COVID-19 in the United States where we are moving from an epidemic to endemic for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, we need to focus on how safest to get there. Clearly, the introduction of a highly effective vaccine is abbreviating the time it would normally take to get our population immunity to this novel virus. What would have taken 2-5 years with multiple outbreaks throughout the country will now be less than 18 months before we get to a point where we no longer have massive spikes of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19.

Who is Dr. Noorchashm?

My guest is public health expert, Dr. Hooman Noorchashm of Philadelphia, PA. He is a retired cardiothoracic surgeon and PhD immunologist who gained prominence in the public eye over the battle he and his wife had with the FDA. Their story is both inspiring and sobering as his wife Amy, a critical care trained anesthesiologist, fell to cancer in 2017. She underwent a routine laparoscopic surgery for a stage I (least dangerous) uterine cancer. At the time, a morselator was used to grind up the uterus in the abdomen and avoid the need for a larger incision. Sadly, the morselization process itself would create a metastatic spread of the primarily benign cancer.

Fortunately, the odds of this outcome were very low (~1/350-400 surgeries). However, when you look at how many of these procedures were done for this condition it amounted to hundreds of women each year who were significantly harmed. This led Dr. Noorchashm and his wife to advocate for all the women in the future who might be affected in the same way she was. Their argument was that there were other ways of accomplishing a hysterectomy that didn't involve the risk of spreading the cancer, however small, that could be used. Bringing risk to a small minority of people was simply unacceptable and violated one of the core tenets of medical ethics - First Do No Harm.

Who Should Get the Vaccine?

The most important question we have to ask ourselves is who should get the vaccine? Initially, the question was who had the highest priority to get the vaccine which was in a limited supply. Now, however, there is far more mRNA vaccine available than demand for the vaccination. So now the question comes down to who should get the vaccine, or rather, who shouldn't get vaccinated?

This is where Dr. Noorchashm argues that anyone who has had COVID-19 and cleared the disease should not get vaccinated. There are no other cases where we vaccinate people against a disease after they have successfully fought it off (flu doesn't count since there are many different types of flu that are different). In fact, most recently, when the chicken pox vaccine was introduced, one of the first questions asked was whether the child had already had chicken pox. A near immunological certainty is that once you have cleared a viral infection, you have immunity that is at least if not more robust than immunity you can acquire from a vaccine.

Vaccines clearly create immunity, but it is obviously not the only way to acquire immunity. People who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2  also have immunity and will receive no benefit from a vaccination. So if you receive no benefit from a medical intervention and can only be harmed (however unlikely it may be) then it is unethical to do that intervention.

The FDA and CDC Guidance is Not Only Wrong, But Unethical.

Strangely, the FDA and CDC have issued guidance that all people eligible for vaccination receive them whether they have had COVID-19 or not. But this guidance is flawed and only puts people at risk who will gain no benefit from the vaccine. This is bad science, a lack of understanding of basic immunology, and not looking at current studies which show definitively that people who have been infected get antibodies. By definition, if you are doing something that only provides risk, no matter how small, is unethical and wrong. Dr. Noorchashm states clearly that the American people can handle complicated instructions and don't need to be put at risk by our health experts unnecessarily.

What Should We Do About Vaccinations Then?

Instructions for vaccinations should be fairly straightforward.

1. If you have had COVID-19 and cleared the infection do not get vaccinated.
2. If you are unsure whether or not you had COVID-19, get an antibody titer drawn to see if you have immunity. If not, get vaccinated. If you do, don't get vaccinated.
3. Get vaccinated if you haven't had COVID and don't suspect it or have no reason to suspect an asymptomatic infection. (Front line health care worker, point person in retail, close family members or friends who had it)

Pretty simple.