EDITOR:

The Governess of Michigan has announced a plan to “re-open” the State of Michigan based upon the percentage of persons who have been fully or partially vaccinated against the virus. This is a good plan, but the state vastly under-counts the number of people who are immune.

I do not have a large number of friends, but among the friends that I do have, the majority of these people have had COVID and have gotten over it. None of these people (a dozen) were hospitalized, and none reported their experience to the health department or to the governess.

As for myself, I had COVID October 24-26, 2020. I did not have loss of taste or smell, so it was difficult to be certain of my diagnosis. Therefore, I managed to have my COVID antibodies tested, and my score was 6. The score of 6 proves that I had COVID, and it is very strong evidence that I am immune to COVID. My wife had COVID, too, at the same time that I did, with a loss of taste, and both of us got doubly vaccinated months afterward. None of my acquaintances who had COVID will accept the vaccine. I was criticized for accepting the vaccine, “You are already immune, why did you accept the vaccine?” My answer, “No-one can tell me definitively or scientifically whether a person who has had COVID should get vaccinated!”

The state knows that my wife and I got vaccinated, so we are counted as immune. None of my friends who had COVID reported their illness to the state; they were self-diagnosed by loss of taste or smell or both, which is pretty good evidence of COVID, and they will not be vaccinated and so will not be counted as immune.

I ask the reader to count how many of their friends / relatives had COVID and were not hospitalized. How many of these people reported their illness to the state. Not many I would guess.

It would be too expensive to test everyone for COVID antibodies, but the state could make a random selection of citizens to test for COVID antibodies. Then the state could estimate what fraction of the population is already immune.

Ralph B Blasier

Escanaba