October 8, 2021 | Fox News - Ingraham Angle
On October 8, 2021, EPPC Fellow Dr. Aaron Kheriaty appeared on Fox News’s “Ingraham Angle” with guest host Raymond Arroyo to discuss Dr. Kheriaty’s lawsuit challenging the University of California system’s vaccine mandate, and his subsequent suspension by UC.
Click here to watch this appearance.
Below is a transcript provided by Fox News:
RAYMOND ARROYO: In the last – late August, rather, physician Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, he took the University of California Irvine to court over its draconian vaccine mandate. He did so on behalf of colleagues, who like himself, already had natural immunity to COVID from a past infection.
I should note, this argument is 100 percent backed by scientific evidence.
But UC Irvine doesn’t seem to care about that. So October 1st, they suspended Dr. Kheriaty, then banned him from working on campus or at home, and they banned him from seeing his patients. Dr. Kheriaty joins us now.
Now, doctor, you’re a psychiatrist. We reached out to UC Irvine for comment. They didn’t respond. It looks like they’re trying to beat you into submission. They not only suspended you, but put you on investigative leave. What does that mean?
DR. AARON KHERIATY, UNVAXXED PROF DEFENDS NAT IMMUNITY: Yes, that’s right.
That’s sort of what feels like to me, Raymond. They are not allowing me to come on campus at all. Initially, they were not allowing me to see my patients.
I was notified at 5:00 pm on Thursday last week, and it went into effect the very next day, so I had already left the office. I was given no time to notify my patients or my students or the residents that I supervise in clinics every week. That I was being placed on leave. They didn’t know what had happened to me or where I had gone.
Fortunately, my patients pushed back and the university relented and is allowing me to see them by telemedicine for visits this month. But, anyone who’s gone to a therapist, or psychiatrist knows that a face-to-face encounter and a Zoom encounter are not the same thing.
So they’ve suspended me. They have – my ability to earn a living outside the university, while I’m suspended, is crippled by my contract which says I can only see patients at the university. So I’m in a very tough spot professionally.
And there’s other folks that I’m aware of at the university, who have also not been vaccinated and have not been granted an exemption yet. But those folks have not been sent home or placed on this investigatory leave status.
So from my vantage point, it looks and feels like a form of retaliation because I had filed a lawsuit, as you mentioned, in federal court challenging the constitutionality of their vaccine mandate.
ARROYO: Professor, universities like U.C. Irvine are emboldened by national health leaders who don’t even bother to study natural immunity.
This is Dr. Fauci just a few weeks ago. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I get calls all the time. People say I’ve already had COVID. I’m protected, and now the study says may be even more protected then the vaccine alone. Should they also get the vaccine? How do you make the case for that?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: That’s a really good point, Sanjay. I don’t have a really firm answer for you on that. That is something we’re going to have to discuss regarding the durability of the response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: Dr. Kheriaty, millions of people have gotten this virus, and he doesn’t have an answer on natural immunity? You’re the director of medical ethics at U.C. Irvine. Are these vaccine mandates medically ethical given the complete disregard for natural immunity?
KHERIATY: No, I don’t believe that they are for that reason. Natural immunity we know is more effective than the vaccines. That’s not to denigrate the vaccines, but natural immunity is 99 percent effective. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine by their own data that they submitted for emergency use authorization was 67 percent effective. The vaccine immunity is declining over time. That’s why people are talking about boosters now.
It still offers some efficacy of preventing more serious symptoms. But it doesn’t prevent infection and transmission. Natural immunity does. We have overwhelming evidence in the scientific literature now that natural immunity is robust, it’s durable. It prevents not only reinfection, but it prevents transmission. I’m the safest person to be around on campus, yet I’m the person who has been sent home.
ARROYO: Dr. Kheriaty, I’m glad you’re raising this issue of natural immunity. It needs to be talked about not only at U.C. Irvine, but around the country. Thank you for raising it.
