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The White House has accepted a statement from a group of scientists who argue that authorities should allow the coronavirus to spread among healthy young people while protecting the elderly and vulnerable, an approach that would be based on reaching the ” herd immunity “through infections rather than a vaccine.
Many experts say that “herd immunity,” the point at which a disease stops spreading because almost everyone in a population has contracted it, is still a long way off. Leading experts have concluded, using different scientific methods, that between 85% and 90% of the US population is still susceptible to the coronavirus.
In a call called Monday by the White House, two senior administration officials, both speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to give their names, cited an Oct. 4 petition titled The Great Barrington Declaration, arguing against of the closings and requests the reopening of businesses. and schools.
“Current lockdown policies are producing devastating short-term and long-term public health effects,” the statement states, adding: “The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of achieving herd immunity is to allow those who have minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to develop immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are most at risk. We call this Focused Protection. “
The declaration has more than 9,000 signatories from around the world, its website says, although most of the names are not public. The document emerged from a meeting organized by the American Institute for Economic Research, a libertarian-leaning research organization.
Among its main authors are Jay Bhattacharya, an economist at Stanford University, academic home of Dr. Scott Atlas, scientific adviser to President Donald Trump. Atlas has also supported herd immunity.
The signatories of the statement include Sunetra Gupta and Gabriela Gomes, two scientists who have proposed that societies can achieve herd immunity when between 10% and 20% of their populations have been infected with the virus, a position with which most epidemiologists disagree.
Last month, at the request of The New York Times, three epidemiological teams calculated the percentage of the country that is infected. What they found strongly contradicts the theory being promoted in influential circles that the United States has already achieved or is close to herd immunity, and that the pandemic is almost over. That conclusion would imply that businesses, schools and restaurants could safely reopen and that masks and other distancing measures could be abandoned.
“The idea that herd immunity will occur at 10% or 20% is just silly,” said Dr. Christopher JL Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which produced the epidemic model. It is frequently cited during White House briefings. when the epidemic hit hard in the spring.
The move comes amid a coronavirus outbreak at the White House that has swelled to more than 20 people, as evidence grows that the administration did little to prevent or contain the spread of the virus.
On Tuesday night, Labor Department officials said the secretary’s wife, Eugene Scalia, tested positive for the coronavirus earlier that day. Trish Scalia, who was said to be experiencing “mild symptoms,” and her husband were at an event at the Rose Garden honoring Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is believed to be the source of several infections in people associated with the White House. The secretary tested negative, authorities said, but will work from home “for now.”
