(CNN) – With barbed wire and electric fencing on its border and the government’s hostility towards migrants, Hungary’s borders are not always friendly to foreigners.
It is during normal time. Amid the epidemic, Hungary has closed its doors to almost everyone, even its European neighbors.
Unless, of course, they have a Covid-19.
Otherwise there is no place in the strict admission rules you would expect such a novel exception.
The policy, implemented in early September, opens the door for visitors to provide evidence that they have recovered from Covid-19 – evidence of both positive and negative testing over the past six months.
Iceland plans for a similar policy starting next week – and it already allows previously infected citizens to ignore the nationwide mask order.
Experts call such policies a kind of “immune passport”. But does killing the virus really boost the immune system? Evidence so far suggests that for most people, it does.
“Certainly it is theoretically possible that some people with antibodies may not even be protected,” Dr. Ania Wazenberg told CNN outside her lab at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York.
“But I think most people who test positive for antibodies will be safe for a while.”
Society reopened
Hungary has not announced any results of its cowardly border strategy.
Orsi Ajpek / Getty Images
Weisenberg is leading an extensive study of more than 30,000 people who had mild to moderate cases of Covid-19. Its latest research, published in October, found that more than 90% of people have enough antibodies to kill the virus for several months after infection, perhaps longer.
Therefore, anyone entering Hungary under this policy may be re-infected or others may be infected, he says. Although science has not fully settled on how long immunity lasts, there are some documented cases of re-adjustment.
“This can be a reasonable way to start reopening society and allow for travel and business,” he says.
Iceland’s chief pathologist Thorolfer Goodenson has reached a similar conclusion based on his country’s own data and studies abroad.
“I think it’s very safe. I mean there are uncertainties with everything we do. Nothing is 100%,” he told CNN.
Testing and disinfection at the border begins December 10. Documentary evidence of a North Atlantic Tourist Magnet at least 14 days old Positive Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test or an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test will accept that the antibody level is measured – provided it is a valid European lab.
Thorolfer said Icelanders who have beaten the virus have also been exempted from the nationwide mask mandate with their doctor’s letter – although he says most people wear them because of social stigma. He did not infect anyone knowingly, especially as the vaccine comes soon.
“It’s possible. But on the other hand, I think even people who have been infected are infected. Why not let them travel free?” He said. “I think it’s basically a question of justice. If you have a medical condition that you’re not spreading the virus or don’t mind, you don’t pose a risk to the environment, you should be recognized for that.”
Covid spike risk
Iceland is allowing quarantine-free entry for people who can prove they have a covid.
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Iceland is also in talks with other Nordic countries – Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway – to allow freed people to travel freely without restrictions. Yet Thorolfur says negotiations have not progressed further – and he does not expect any other countries to follow Iceland’s lead.
Thorolfur was unaware of Hungarian policy.
The Central European country has nothing left to say about the success or failure of its unique liberation, what science it is based on, and how its pros and cons have been weighed.
The Hungarian government denied the interview requests and only sent a statement describing the policy. Many of the experts contacted by CNN did not know it was in place. It has not been widely discussed even within Hungary.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued an advisory against the Immunity Passport in April. Read in its scientific summary, “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and have antibodies are protected from another infection.”
On Thursday, the WHO confirmed that it had not made any changes to its position, but, Regional Adviser Dr Siddharth Shankar Dutta said it was looking to help countries implement electronic vaccination certifications. Other experts have also expressed concern about the immune passport.
“I think the worst case scenario is that you’ll see a spike in the cases that occur because people are encouraged to try to demonstrate the immunity to covid,” Carmel Schacher, an expert in bioethics and health law at Harvard University, told CNN. Law expert Carmel Shatcher tells CNN.
“So, all of a sudden, you see people not wearing masks, not respecting social distance, because they want to get covid. Especially if more and more countries have adopted the same plan.”
Experts from several leading medical journals have also warned that immune passports can cause other healthy people to knowingly stimulate the infection.
It’s not clear if anyone was infected with the intent to enter Hungary, but Rebecca Brown, a moralist at University of Oxford, finds it hard to believe.
“It’s going to be an extreme thing to do. And I don’t think, in all likelihood, a huge number of people will,” he says. People.
‘A bad idea’
Hungary has closed its borders to most of Europe.
Orsi Ajpek / Getty Images
Schacher also argues that “immune passports” can reward careless people who violate the Kovid rules or violate infected medical privacy.
She argues, “The more information you need to get out there, the more common it is to intrude on people’s privacy.”
Harvard biotheist Natalie Koffler is an ointment in opposition to the immunity passport. “That’s a bad idea,” he says.
Koffler says they could exacerbate existing inequalities.
“If you had [the virus] Previously, it was not like a vaccine from an ethical point of view. That’s because you had to stay healthy enough, become a specialist enough to get the healthcare you need, and be rich enough to get the tests you need to survive the virus. “
Brown of Oxford wrote a paper examining the advantages and disadvantages of an immune passport, which ultimately argues that the potential benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
“A lot of people who are concerned about the Immunity Passport have not really given a lot of suggestions on how to solve the problems and they don’t seem uncertain. It seems like we can focus on what kind of problems we can create in this way,” she said. That said.
‘Positive benefits’
The aviation organization IATA wants to issue a vaccination passport to open the borders.
STR / AFP by Getty Images
Immunity passports can be back in fashion once the vaccine arrives. The International Air Transport Association, which represents hundreds of airlines, has been pushing passengers for a secure, digital “travel pass” to show evidence that they have been vaccinated once passengers become available.
Lan Lan Joyce, CEO of the Australian airline Qantas, has already suggested that, in the future, passengers will have to prove they have been vaccinated to board.
Brown argues that those who have recovered from the virus should be treated as those who were vaccinated. Suspicious Shacher is also cautiously open to thought.
“There’s really a positive benefit to treating them equally. We don’t want to waste vaccine doses, it will be a while before there is enough vaccine for every human being on earth.”
Asked if those who have recovered from the virus should be put behind the vaccine line, Vazenberg says it’s a good idea in theory. In practice, she says she will need the same accurate, high-quality ELISA tests she uses in the lab, rolled out on a large scale.
“He understands … not just vaccinating people with very high levels of antibodies already, but I think it will be very challenging operationally.”
The report was contributed by Neil Bennett, Christian Strab, Scher Featherstone, Brist Lint Birdie, David B. Labriton and Ryan Drian Divergilio.
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