Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed some support for the idea of having Americans deemed “immune” from the coronavirus carry I.D. cards to help government officials determine who’s still vulnerable to the disease and who’s not.
"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," Fauci, who helps lead President Trump’s coronavirus task force, said on CNN’s “New Day” Friday. "This is something that's being discussed. I think it might actually have some merit, under certain circumstances."
The idea would be to give antibody tests to those who’ve already had the virus, or suspect that they have. If they have antibodies and therefore deemed incapable of contracting the disease and spreading it to others, they’d then be given a “certificate” of immunity, which they could be required to present in order to go back to work or go about other “non-essential” business as the economy begins to reopen.
Other countries, including Germany and the U.K., have discussed some measures for a person to display whether they’re immune from the disease. In China, citizens are already required to display colored codes on their phones indicating how at-risk they are of carrying the virus. In the U.K., some officials are saying they may require citizens to wear wristbands showing whether they’re immune.
But the notion of “immunity certificates” comes with its own set of risks – one of the largest of which is that people will try to contract the virus so they can become immune and go about their lives.
“Like the ‘chickenpox parties’ of old, some workers will want to get infected,” I. Glenn Cohen, a bioethics expert at Harvard Law School, told Bloomberg News. “That sounds crazy, but if having the antibodies becomes the cost of entering the job market and thus feeding your family, there may be workers who feel pressured into it.”
It’s also not currently known how long a person carries antibodies in their system after being infected, meaning some if not all who are infected could be at risk of exposure and re-contracting the virus after having already had it. In addition, experts say the ability to conduct widespread antibody tests is still a ways down the road.