President Trump and his administration have returned to pushing the notion that America should fight the pandemic by attempting to achieve so-called herd immunity.
In the days following President Trump’s apparent recovery from COVID-19, he and his administration have returned to pushing the notion that America should fight the pandemic by attempting to achieve so-called herd immunity, rather than trying to stop the spread through the use of masks and by reducing in-person contacts.
In fact, some people — very few — who have recovered from COVID-19 have been infected a second time, apparently with a mutated strain of the virus. The idea behind herd immunity is that if a high enough percentage of a population, upwards of 60 to 70 percent, is exposed to a virus and produces antibodies for it, the chain of infection will be broken.
“Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,” World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a Monday briefing. “It is scientifically and ethically problematic.” Seizing on that apparent contradiction, the Trump administration convened a call with reporters to promote the idea that the U.S. should look to herd immunity to help put an end to the pandemic, the New York Times reported Wednesday. During that call, two officials who requested anonymity cited a petition called The Great Barrington Declaration which calls for states to lift coronavirus restrictions for the bulk of American citizens.
“Now they say I’m immune. I feel so powerful I’ll walk into that audience,” Trump said at a Monday rally in Central Florida, adding, “I’ll kiss everyone in that audience.”
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