FLASHBACK: Fauci praises natural flu immunity as ‘the most potent vaccination’

The interview gaining renewed attention as Fauci’s stance when it came to natural immunity versus the COVID vaccine had the doctor struggling to provide a clear answer.

The clip came from an October 2004 appearance by Fauci on the C-SPAN's Washington Journal. At the time it aired, there were concerns about a vaccine shortage within the United States. The topic is discussed at length alongside general fundamentals about the flu season.

On the program they take questions from callers. At the 28-minute mark the show gets one from a 67-year-old lady in Aitkin, Minnesota.

The story of the caller is that after she first got a flu shot after being pregnant roughly 35 years prior, she ended up getting sick. The same being the case when she had flu shots when working in a nursing home. She relayed to Fauci and C-SPAN that she was generally better off just getting the flu naturally.

Fauci’s response:

"Well it’s very difficult to figure out just on that base of information, what’s gone on with the caller. There are some people who have bad reactions to, in vaccination, even if it’s a killed vaccination. It is possible since the flu vaccine virus is grown in eggs, then you may have an allergy to one of those components, and what you were feeling was actually an allergic reaction."

Fauci said it’d be "unlikely" that every time this caller got the flu shot, she ended up getting the flu. But he also admitted there’s a part of the population who do respond poorly to vaccines.

"But she’s had the flu for fourteen days, should she get a flu shot?" asked the episode’s host, Peter Slen.

"Well no. If she got the flu for fourteen days, she’s as protected as anybody can be, because the best vaccination is to get infected yourself. If she really has the flu, if she really has the flu, she definitely doesn’t need a flu vaccine."

When asked if this person could get it again, Fauci responded "she doesn’t need it [...] the most potent vaccination is getting infected yourself."

Earlier this year Dr. Fauci was grilled in a Senate Committee over financial disclosures and research grants. The public scrutiny surrounding the issues recently culminated in a Vanity Fair story that explores the EcoHealth Alliance grant dilemma at length.

With the onset of the latest COVID variant, Fauci briefly emerged making media rounds warning the public that pandemic restrictions could always come back if the circumstances got too severe.