Dr. Fauci Praises the Merit of “Certificates of Immunity”

From CNN:

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday on CNN's "New Day" the idea of Americans carrying certificates of immunity to prove they have tested positive for the antibodies to the coronavirus might "have some merit under certain circumstances." 

 Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Alisyn Camerota immunity certificates are being discussed. 

"It's one of those things that we talk about when we want to make sure that we know who the vulnerable people are and not," he said

Fauci added that these antibody tests will be important for medical workers and others on the frontline who are fighting the current pandemic.

"If their antibody test is positive, one can formulate strategies about whether or not they would be at risk or vulnerable to getting re-infected. This would be important for health care workers, for first-line fighters," he said.

Oh and those antibody tests are coming within about a week, CNN says:

Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says antibody tests, which show who has already been infected with the coronavirus, will be available soon. 

“Within a period of a week or so, we're going to have a rather large number of tests that are available,” Fauci told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, said testing of people who currently have the coronavirus and antibody tests will be done in parallel.

Fauci also said the prospect of Americans carrying certificates of immunity to prove they have tested positive for the antibodies to the coronavirus might "have some merit under certain circumstances." Immunity certificates are being discussed in the White House coronavirus task force meetings, Fauci said. 

"It's one of those things that we talk about when we want to make sure that we know who the vulnerable people are and not."

Fauci declined to give a concrete date when the US can reopen businesses and begin to relax restrictions. “The virus kind of decides whether or not it's going to be appropriate to open or not,” he said. “I would want to see a clear indication that you are very, very clearly and strongly going in the right direction. Because the one thing you don't want to do is you don't want to get out there prematurely and wind up back in the same situation,” he added.

Fauci said that Americans should still practice social distancing guidelines during Passover and Easter. He predicted there will be many deaths in the next week, but “deaths tend to lag behind what the driving elements of the outbreak are,” and there should be fewer hospitalizations and intubations.

Politico had more:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, revealed Friday the federal government is considering issuing Americans certificates of immunity from the coronavirus, as the Trump administration works to better identify those who have been infected and restart the U.S. economy in the coming weeks. 

"You know, that's possible," Fauci told CNN's "New Day," when asked whether he could imagine a time when people across the country carry such forms of identification.

"I mean, it's one of those things that we talk about when we want to make sure that we know who the vulnerable people are and not," he said. "This is something that's being discussed. I think it might actually have some merit, under certain circumstances."

The proposal is contingent upon the widespread deployment of antibody tests which the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration are in the process of validating in the the U.S., Fauci said. 

"Within a period of a week or so, we're going to have a rather large number of tests that are available" to the public, he added.

The development of a comprehensive antibody testing system represents the next phase of the administration's efforts to reopen the country and begin reintegrating essential workers such as health care providers and first responders back into society.

Although coronavirus testing thus far has been able to determine if an individual has an active infection, antibody tests report whether an asymptomatic person was previously infected but has since recovered, potentially allowing them to return to their jobs. 

"As we look forward, as we get to the point of at least considering opening up the country, as it were, it's very important to appreciate and to understand how much that virus has penetrated the society," Fauci said.

Immunity certificates are already being implemented by researchers in Germany and have been floated by the United Kingdom and Italy, the most recent epicenter of the global outbreak in Europe. 

In parts of China, citizens are required to display colored codes on their smartphones indicating their contagion risk. The controversial surveillance measure facilitated earlier this week the end of the lockdown of Wuhan, the city in China's central province of Hubei where the novel coronavirus first emerged.