Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the White House Coronavirus Task Force is considering issuing certificates of immunity to Americans who have contracted and recovered from the Wuhan coronavirus.
He made it clear that testing for the virus and anti-body testing will be done on parallel tracks. This will allow health care workers to know who is actively fighting the virus versus who was asymptomatic.
"One does not essentially rule out the other," Fauci explained. "We still rely heavily and appropriately on the test to show that someone is, in fact, infected, whereas the anti-body test says that you were infected and if you're feeling well, you're very likely recovered."
The NIAID head said it's very likely that a large portion of the population has been infected and recovered but never knew they had the Wuhan coronavirus because they were asymptomatic.
According to Fauci, anti-body testing will be ramped up over the next week as President Donald Trump looks to reopen the economy and get Americans back to work.
"Can you imagine a time where Americans carry a certificate of immunity?" CNN's Alisyn Camerota asked.
"You know, that's possible," he 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. This is something that’s being discussed, I think it might actually have some merit under certain circumstances."
Other countries, like Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, have implemented immunity certifications, POLITICO reported.
As of Friday, the United States has 459,165 Wuhan coronavirus cases and 16,570 deaths.
Dr. Anthony Fauci: “Within a period of a week or so, we’re going to have a rather large number of [antibody] tests that are available.”https://t.co/Klsiktp7fq pic.twitter.com/9LdH5CHOFc
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