Herd immunity strategy endorsed by White House a 'ridiculous' way to stop COVID-19, scientists say – it will just kill people
The idea that the public can infect its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is "a dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence," 80 researchers said Wednesday in a
letter published in the Lancet.
They strongly denounced the idea, advocated by the White House, of achieving "herd immunity" against the virus that causes the disease by letting healthy people with a low risk of serious illness get infected.
A community is considered to have herd immunity when enough people build up protection against a pathogen, either through natural infection or a vaccine. For extremely contagious viruses such as the measles, about 90% of the population must be protected to prevent transmission.
No one knows exactly how many people need to be protected to stop COVID-19 from spreading, but estimates range from 50%-70% of the population.
There are more than 7.9 million cases and more than 217,000 deaths in the USA,
according to Johns Hopkins data. Five states had a record number of deaths in a week, and 12 states set records for new cases in a week, a USA TODAY analysis found.
A memorandum published Oct. 4,
called the Great Barrington Declaration, called for the world to embrace herd immunity for COVID-19 as a way to protect the vulnerable while allowing economies to thrive.
The declaration came out of a meeting hosted by the libertarian-leaning American Ins ute for Economic Research. Its website says it has more than 9,000 signatures, though most names are not public.
“The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk," the declaration says.
According to The New York Times, a senior administration official, speaking anonymously,
said Monday that the president has long supported the idea. "The plan is endorsing what the president's policy has been for months," he said.
The idea leaves most epidemiologists appalled and incredulous.
"It's just ridiculous," said Yvonne Maldonado, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at Stanford University Medical School. "Everything they say (in the declaration) is either misinformation or an outright lie."
Thomas File, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, denounced the declaration Wednesday, saying it was "released without data or evidence."
Read more:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ly/3655134001/
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that GBD was funded by Charles Koch.