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A group of 80 researchers warned on Wednesday, in an open letter published by the scientific journal The Lancet, that group immunity approaches to managing the covid-19 pandemic are “a dangerous fallacy” without scientific support.
For the scientists who subscribed to the paper, the idea that immunity develops in low-risk populations, while protecting the most vulnerable, is “a dangerous fallacy without the support of scientific evidence.”
“It is essential to act decisively and urgently. Effective measures to suppress and control transmission must be widely adopted and must be supported by financial and social programs that promote community responses and address the inequalities that have been magnified by the pandemic,” they defend The experts. .
The position of the scientists comes at a time when the world is facing a second wave of infections by the new coronavirus and when more than a million deaths have been registered.
The authors of the letter, researchers from various countries in various fields, present their vision and the strategies to be adopted to protect societies and the economy.
The document, in the form of a memorandum, will also be released during the XVI World Congress of the Public Health Program 2020.
To date, it has been signed by 80 researchers with experience in public health, epidemiology, medicine, pediatrics, sociology, virology, infectious diseases, health systems, psychology, psychiatry, health policy and mathematical modeling.
“Continued short-term restrictions are likely to be needed to reduce transmission and correct ineffective pandemic response systems to avoid future lockdowns,” they write.
The purpose of the restrictions is to effectively suppress SARS-CoV-2 infections and place them at low levels that allow rapid detection of localized outbreaks and rapid response through efficient and comprehensive systems of location, testing, monitoring, isolation and support. . so that “life can return to normal without the need for general restrictions”, they defend.
“The protection of our economies is closely linked to the control of covid-19. We must protect our workforce and avoid long-term uncertainties “, reads the text published by Lancet.
For these experts, any strategy for managing a pandemic based on group immunity is fallacious.
Uncontrolled transmission in the very young poses “significant risks of health problems and death throughout the population,” they explain, stating that there is evidence from many countries showing that it is not possible to restrict uncontrolled outbreaks to certain sectors of society, and it is “practically impossible and very unethical” to isolate large sectors of the population.
Special efforts to protect the most vulnerable “are essential”, but must “go hand in hand with multifaceted strategies” to contain the virus in the population, as group immunity strategies based on natural infections would lead to “recurring epidemics “.
They also argue that the aforementioned group immunity strategies can put a strain on the healthcare system and pose an unacceptable burden for healthcare professionals, many of whom have died from COVID-19 or suffered trauma.
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