[ad_1]
You’ve probably already heard of the “Great Barrington Declaration,” which advocates for ending all closures, fully reopening schools, and abandoning most efforts to prevent new COVID-19 infections, except for “the vulnerable “. The goal, of course, is to allow natural immunity to develop in the population, as soon as possible and without waiting for vaccines.
MedPage today I had the opportunity to sit down with Johnny Fartpants, PhD, one of the most prominent signers of the statement, for his insistence, in fact, because we are recovering from COVID-19 and Fartpants was eager for the opportunity to infect himself.
The following has been edited for clarity and because we did not like some of your responses.
MedPage today: Let’s start by telling us about you.
Thank you. Do you mind if I feel closer?
No, come in.
Well, first I would like to dispel some misconceptions about myself. I’m definitely a real doctor, I worked really hard for that PhD in art history. Furthermore, the criticism that I have no medical training is unfounded. My dissertation focused on Tintoretto’s painting “Saint Roque ministering to the victims of the plague,” so I am well versed in responses to pandemics. Also, I belong to many vaccine-related Facebook groups and balance my checkbook on my head. Statements that I am not qualified to comment on public health issues are obviously slander.
The Great Barrington paper does much of the adverse impacts of current policies aimed at social distancing – “lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings, and deterioration in mental health.” – as reasons to prefer the rapid spread of coronavirus infection. However, the data suggest that countries with the strictest infection control policies have had the fewest “excess deaths”; in some cases, fewer deaths than in normal years, while COVID-19 cases remain at very low levels.
They will eventually get theirs. And we are not New Zealand, we cannot subsist on kiwis and whatever they eat there. We need our restaurants to serve 12-inch-tall burgers with bacon and cheese to crowded crowds to survive as a democratic society. You see what happened in Michigan when people were deprived: it was like “Mad Max” met “Fargo.”
One consequence of letting infections spread rampant, even in low-risk populations, is that a percentage will become seriously ill. His group hopes to achieve something like 200 million infections in the space of a few months, at a time when influenza will also be circulating. With a 2% hospitalization rate (as a calculator for an average 35-year-old normal-weight white male with no risk factors shows), that would land 4 million people in the hospital.
Then we better not wait to start building more hospitals. Geez, it’s like I’m talking to Dr. Fauci here. Not that I’ve ever done it, he doesn’t respond to my direct messages, emails, or phone calls. Because HE IS NOT INTERESTED IN THE TRUTH! [shouting]
What about those who develop symptoms and therefore cannot go to work? The statement says they should stay home. It would be tens of millions of people. That will surely hurt the economy.
They can work from home as I have been, thanks to the ignorance of the blind Philistine pig from the community college where I am attached. Those who can’t should get 100% unemployment benefits, which I’m sure President Trump and his Republican friends in Congress will be eager to provide, as they have been doing all year.
So who are “the vulnerable” mentioned in the document? He mentions nursing home residents “as an example” but does not offer guidance on who else might be included. Others have estimated that it could include 30% or more of the population, since obesity, diabetes and other common ailments are important risk factors beyond age.
As the old margarine commercial said, it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. It is natural that the sick and the weak do not survive when the going gets tough. It’s chlorine for the gene pool, if you know what I mean. Darwin had a theory about this.
The statement assumes that the infection produces immunity, but that remains unknown. Antibody titers clearly decrease over time. It is true that only a few cases of reinfection have been documented, but with so many infections that have few or no symptoms and are therefore not diagnosed, many current cases could well be the second of the individuals.
Here it is important to have faith. Believe in God?
Well I …
I do not think so. The story of this planet is that infections induce immunity, the strong survive, and the weak get out of our way. The important thing is that I need to get a real college job to get out of my parents’ basement, they are driving me crazy. They feel the same. Maybe more.
If a vaccine is available before you are successful in contracting a natural infection, will you take it?
Are you Bill Gates now? I guess you weren’t listening when I mentioned belonging to Facebook groups.
