Don't Catch Coronavirus Deliberately Just To Get An 'Immunity Passport', Brits Warned
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Britons have been warned by a leading global expert in the spread of coronavirus it is “not a good idea” to contract the disease on purpose in an attempt to secure a so-called immunity passport, which could grant them the freedom to return to normal life.
The government is hopeful of obtaining an antibody test that would show whether someone has already had the illness.
People who have recovered from the disease are thought likely to be immune, or at least to have increased immunity.
Boris Johnson has previously talked up an home antibody test as a potential “game changer”.
And Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has raised the possibility the government could grant an “immunity certificate or maybe a wristband” to people “when the science is good enough” to allow them more freedom from lockdown measures.
David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told HuffPost UK there was “always a concern” people could therefore try to be infected deliberately.
“There was chickenpox before,” he said. “Many times people try and expose their children to measles to get them sick early on so they would be immune later on.
“It’s not a good idea. This disease is infectious and it affects all people and can cause illness in all people.”
Heymann headed up the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) response to the 2003 Sars epidemic. From 2012 to March 2017 he was chair of Public Health England (PHE).
He said the form any immunity document took “would depend on the government and what national tradition is”.
The professor, who is currently advising the WHO on coronavirus, added: “I think if there is a passport rolled out where there are people with antibodies who are then able to go back to work, there has to be clear instructions to them as to what that means and the risk of...
