Newly released FOIA records indicate senior U.S. health officials privately acknowledged strong natural immunity data in 2021 even as sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandates moved forward.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Internal government emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that Anthony Fauci privately acknowledged “impressive data” demonstrating strong immunity following COVID-19 infection, even as he and other senior officials publicly promoted and defended broad vaccine mandates, according to documents reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The records, released by Protect the Public’s Trust, show that top pandemic response officials within the Biden administration discussed an Israeli study in August 2021 that found individuals who recovered from COVID-19 had substantially stronger protection against reinfection than those who were vaccinated. These internal discussions occurred as the federal government initiated vaccine mandates, including a Pentagon memo dated Aug. 24, 2021 requiring COVID-19 vaccination for service members.
The documents indicate officials were aware that the scientific evidence did not support universal vaccination for people with prior infection, yet publicly asserted that vaccination was necessary for immunity.
“What does it say about our own institutions that, despite billions spent every year, Americans had to rely on Israeli research for their health information, and that our own officials tried to bury what didn’t fit their preferred narrative?” said Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust. “There’s been a lot of handwringing about reforms and personnel actions by the new leadership at HHS, but this is just more evidence that the public health bureaucracy was ripe for a thorough housecleaning.”
The disclosure comes as an investigation continues under President Donald Trump’s administration, led by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, examining deaths following COVID-19 vaccination in children and young adults. The records raise questions about whether mandates were imposed despite officials’ awareness that vaccination may have been redundant for individuals with prior immunity.
“This is the evidence right here showing that our nation’s scientific leaders were not acting scientifically, and there needs to be accountability,” said Stephanie Edewaard Weidle, executive director of Feds For Freedom. “We in the medical freedom fighting world, we already knew this, but to see it spelled out in these FOIA documents just makes it worse. People lost their jobs and their lives were turned upside down based on the argument that natural immunity was not enough.”
Privately, Fauci and then–National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins discussed the Israeli study, which was highlighted in the news section of Science. The research showed that people previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 were 13 times more protected against subsequent infection than those vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.
“The data [in the Israeli study] as reported in the news article look rather impressive . . . . but I would imagine that it is more complicated than we think . . . . [I]t is conceivable and possibly likely that those who have had a serious systemic infection develop a high level of immunity that even surpasses that of full vaccination,” Fauci wrote in an Aug. 27, 2021 email titled “RE: Post infection protection vs vaccine immunity.”
At the same time, the NIH launched a coordinated public messaging effort in favor of mandates, including appearances and coverage across Voice of America, Mediaite, ABC7 New York and YouTube.
Publicly, Fauci defended mandates as necessary during a crisis. “When you are in a public health crisis, sometimes unusual situations require unusual actions,” he said during an October appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” “In this case, it’s things like mandating, be they masks or vaccinations.” He later said mandates were “very important” to protect society.
Collins, in an Aug. 30, 2021 email, described the Israeli findings as “puzzling” but “well-designed,” adding, “Most of us have been saying up until now that vaccines are actually better for providing immunity – what does the overall synthesis of the data now say?”
Further internal discussion came from John T. Brooks, then the CDC’s COVID chief medical officer, who circulated additional evidence to senior officials and wrote that “something is going on here.” Brooks shared analyses indicating antibodies declined far more rapidly after vaccination than after prior infection, noting declines of 40% versus less than 5% per month. His internal slide deck, marked “For internal use only – Not for further distribution”, suggested boosters as the solution.
“It seems now from at least three very different analyses of different data … that vaccine-induced immunity wanes over time … whereas infection-induced may be more durable up to at least the 4-6 month mark,” Brooks wrote. “The good news here is that boosters look like a solution.”
Officials included in these discussions, according to the emails, were Fauci, Collins, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, and White House science adviser Eric Lander. None responded to emailed requests for comment, and an inquiry to Collins’ book publisher was not returned.
That same month, Collins publicly endorsed mandates following FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine, saying in an ABC News appearance that requiring vaccination or frequent testing would be “very inconvenient” for those unwilling to comply.
A central public justification for mandates was a CDC analysis from Kentucky published Aug. 13, 2021, in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The observational study reported fewer reinfections among those with prior infection plus vaccination compared with infection alone, though reinfection rates in both groups were very low. Protect the Public’s Trust later filed a complaint alleging violations of the CDC’s scientific integrity policy in how the findings were communicated.
The watchdog group noted the Israeli study analyzed 778,658 individuals, while the Kentucky MMWR examined just 246 breakthrough cases out of more than 275,000 recovered patients in the state.
Makary, then a professor at Johns Hopkins, publicly criticized the administration’s reliance on the Kentucky data, writing in The Washington Post that a large Israeli study found those with prior infection were far less likely to experience reinfection. He also argued on social media, as cited in the complaint, that reinfection was extremely rare in both vaccinated and naturally immune groups and questioned why Kentucky alone was highlighted.
During a 2022 exchange with Rand Paul, Fauci defended the administration’s position by stating that vaccination provides an “extra boost” to individuals with prior infection, a claim now scrutinized in light of the newly released internal correspondence.
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