“White House officials have promoted a declaration supporting herd immunity that has reportedly been signed by fake names, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
In a Monday phone call, White House officials cited the Great Barrington Declaration, which argues that the government should push for herd immunity with more infections among the healthy population, according to two senior administration officials.” https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/520961-white-house-officials-promote-herd-immunity-declaration-signed-by-fake
“Many experts say “herd immunity” — the point at which a disease stops spreading because nearly everyone in a population has contracted it — is still very far-off. Leading experts have concluded, using different scientific methods, that about 85 to 90 percent of the American population is still susceptible to the coronavirus.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/world/white-house-embraces-a-declaration-from-scientists-that-opposes-lockdowns-and-relies-on-herd-immunity.html
“The Great Barrington Declaration is not a scientific document. As critics readily point out, it presents no data. It has no footnotes, few specific suggestions for how to implement the societal segregation and, unlike most scientific arguments, does not discuss potential objections to the proposal.
“What I worry about with this is it’s being presented as if it’s a major alternative view that’s held by large numbers of experts in the scientific community. That is not true,” Collins, the NIH director, said in an interview.
“This is a fringe component of epidemiology. This is not mainstream science. It’s dangerous. It fits into the political views of certain parts of our confused political establishment,” he said. “I’m sure it will be an idea that someone can wrap themselves in as a justification for skipping wearing masks or social distancing and just doing whatever they damn well please.”
Coronavirus: WHO head calls herd immunity approach ‘immoral’ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54518286
“Spain’s coronavirus antibodies study adds evidence against herd immunity” https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/06/health/spain-coronavirus-antibody-study-lancet-intl/index.html
“Dr. Fauci warns coronavirus vaccine may not lead to herd immunity in US” https://nypost.com/2020/06/29/dr-fauci-warns-that-coronavirus-vaccine-may-not-lead-to-herd-immunity/
“A leading Chinese disease control expert has claimed that it would be ‘completely impossible’ for the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic with ‘herd immunity’. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8487375/Chinese-expert-says-completely-impossible-tackle-COVID-19-herd-immunity.html
Trump defends claim coronavirus will disappear, citing ‘herd mentality’ https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/516618-trump-defends-claim-coronavirus-will-disappear-citing-herd-mentality
“…If Trump was referring to herd immunity when it comes to the number of people getting the virus, well, then he was talking about a massive loss of human life — well in excess of the 400,000+ American deaths that one oft-cited model is projecting by January 1, 2021.
The Mayo Clinic, for example, said that experts estimate 70% of Americans would have to contract and then recover from Covid-19 in order for herd immunity to be achieved. That would mean 229 million cases. It is hard to know for sure what the death rate from Covid-19 is, but it is safe to say that many cases would lead to an astronomical number of deaths.” https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/donald-trump-covid-19-coronavirus-abc-townhall/index.html
As of August 24 the CDC’s estimate was for an infection fatality rate of 0.65% for the U.S. in the Spring of 2020. https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/24/infection-fatality-rate-shows-covid-19-isnt-getting-less-deadly/
Mayo Clinic: “Herd immunity and COVID-19 (coronavirus): What you need to know” https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/herd-immunity-and-coronavirus/art-20486808
“Trump’s Bonkers Coronavirus ‘Herd Mentality’ Claim Lights Up Twitter : The president’s wild night at a town hall took an unexpected turn.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-herd-mentality_n_5f618e1ac5b6e27db134a42b
Last month, The Washington Post estimated that a herd immunity strategy without a vaccine would lead to nearly 3 million deaths in the United States. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/health/coronavirus-herd-immunity-simulation-vaccine/
“The Cost of Herd Immunity in the U.S.” https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/88401
8AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 18th
“The Lancet: First nationally representative estimate of COVID-19 seroprevalence in the U.S. suggests few in the population developed antibodies in the first wave” https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/tl-pss_1092420.php “COVID-19 seroprevalence surveys use antibody tests to estimate the percentage of people in a population who have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.” (CDC) https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/seroprevalance-surveys-tell-us.html
Meanwhile: “Experiencing multiple stressors triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic – such as unemployment – and COVID-19-related media consumption are directly linked to rising acute stress and depressive symptoms across the U.S., according to a groundbreaking University of California, Irvine study. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/uoc–slr091820.php
The report appears in Science Advances, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic: A probability-based, nationally representative study of mental health in the U.S.” https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/09/23/sciadv.abd5390.1
“White House officials have promoted a declaration supporting herd immunity that has reportedly been signed by fake names, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
In a Monday phone call, White House officials cited the Great Barrington Declaration, which argues that the government should push for herd immunity with more infections among the healthy population, according to two senior administration officials.” https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/520961-white-house-officials-promote-herd-immunity-declaration-signed-by-fake
“Many experts say “herd immunity” — the point at which a disease stops spreading because nearly everyone in a population has contracted it — is still very far-off. Leading experts have concluded, using different scientific methods, that about 85 to 90 percent of the American population is still susceptible to the coronavirus.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/world/white-house-embraces-a-declaration-from-scientists-that-opposes-lockdowns-and-relies-on-herd-immunity.html
“The Great Barrington Declaration is not a scientific document. As critics readily point out, it presents no data. It has no footnotes, few specific suggestions for how to implement the societal segregation and, unlike most scientific arguments, does not discuss potential objections to the proposal.
“What I worry about with this is it’s being presented as if it’s a major alternative view that’s held by large numbers of experts in the scientific community. That is not true,” Collins, the NIH director, said in an interview.
“This is a fringe component of epidemiology. This is not mainstream science. It’s dangerous. It fits into the political views of certain parts of our confused political establishment,” he said. “I’m sure it will be an idea that someone can wrap themselves in as a justification for skipping wearing masks or social distancing and just doing whatever they damn well please.”
Coronavirus: WHO head calls herd immunity approach ‘immoral’ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54518286
Re: NIH Director’s quote see https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-herd-immunity/2020/10/10/3910251c-0a60-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html (“Proposal to hasten herd immunity to the coronavirus grabs White House attention but appalls top scientists”)
Francis Sellers Collins is an American physician-geneticist who discovered the genes associated with a number of diseases and led the Human Genome Project. He is director of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Collins