Show Us Your Papers: Dr. Fauci Hints at ‘Immunity Certificates’ to Restart Economy

With a global pandemic upon us, those who have been dreaming of a dystopian doomsday are dusting off their “I Told You So’s” and preparing to flood the world with their wild opinions.

The enemy we are battling, COVID-19, has forced us to shelter in place, at least for the most part.  Restaurants are closed, bars and bowling alleys are shuttered.  There hasn’t been a live concert with an audience in weeks.  It’s social distancing, and it’s working well against the virus.  The only problem is that a lot of Americans aren’t working because of it.

In order to restart the economy, we need either a cure, or a way to tell who has already been through COVID-19 and developed the necessary antibodies to fend it off again.

That’s where things start getting a little authoritarian.

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Friday said it’s possible that Americans could eventually carry around certificates of immunity to the coronavirus once proper testing is widespread enough.

“That’s possible,” Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s “New Day.”

“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.”

There has already been movement up on Capitol Hill regarding the possibility.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, has pitched the idea of an immunity registry to document people no longer believed to be at risk of infection.

Federal and state officials have said that antibody testing to try to determine whether someone had the coronavirus is one of the next major fronts in the battle against COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Freedom and privacy experts will surely have plenty to say about this, as will those who may not be able to afford or access the testing right away.