Senator James Lankford said 92 percent of the United States is naturally immunized or immunized; the doctor is not sure where he got that information

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Senator James Lankford, R-OK, said 92 percent of the US is immune to people who are vaccinated or have natural immunity from contracting the virus and are recovering.

KFOR spoke with Dr. Mary Clarke, president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, and received an email from Dr. Dale Bratzler, the University of Oklahoma’s COVID director, on Wednesday afternoon. Both said they weren’t sure where the statistics on natural immunity came from.

“Ninety-two percent of the adult population, 92 percent, have natural immunity based on having COVID and recovering or having a vaccine,” Lankford said.

“We also don’t know where he got that information from,” Clarke said.

On Wednesday night, Lankford’s comments appeared in a social media post and video.

“We have a very high rate of immunity across the country right now,” Lankford said.

“I’m not aware of any such data in the United States,” Clarke said.

Right now, we know that about 64 percent of the US population has been immunized. Only 26 percent of the population 18 years and older have received booster shots. In his social media video, Lankford lashed out at President Joe Biden’s vaccination missions.

“In the United States of America, we make decisions for our own lives,” says Lankford.

Even so, doctors like Clarke say, even if the claims are true, both natural immunity and immunization immunity weaken over time, hence the booster shots.

“The problem is with COVID, not chickenpox,” says Clarke. “You don’t get it once and you’re immune for life. You’re good for 6 months, 90 days for that variation. Quite possibly, I’ll give you that. But then, there are no guarantees about that.”

As we enter the holiday season with increased cases, we are seeing more than 100,000 infections in the country every day with hospitalizations increasing as well.

“We don’t know how long it will take to really come out of the global pandemic,” Clarke said.

We have reached out to Lankford’s office for clarification on his comment and as of this evening we have not received a response.