Some GOP states carving out "natural immunity" exception to COVID vaccine requirements
CBSN
Republican lawmakers in several states have launched efforts to add exemptions to vaccine requirements for people with so-called "natural immunity" from a previous COVID-19 infection. They're doing so despite evidence that vaccination can cut the risk of COVID-19 even for survivors of the disease, and the fact that there's no easy way to measure the protection offered by a prior infection.
"Unlike what you see going on with some of the federal proposed mandates, other states, is we're actually doing a science-based approach," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said last week.
The Florida Republican signed a bill he touted as the strongest "anti-mandate action taken by any state." It includes "medical evidence that the employee has immunity to COVID-19" among a list of exemptions employers must allow in their COVID vaccination policies.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.