White House Dr. Birx Denies 'Herd Immunity' Policy Under Consideration

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Wed Sep 2, 2020, 03:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters/MSN

By Ben Klayman, 1 hr ago.

LIVONIA, Mich. (Reuters) - White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx on Wednesday dismissed the notion that the White House was considering a strategy of allowing Americans to become infected with coronavirus in order to reach "herd immunity."

"Neither I, nor anybody in the administration, is willing to sacrifice American lives for herd immunity. We'll get to herd immunity through a vaccine and that's the right way to do it," Birx told reporters during a briefing at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, Michigan.

Birx was responding to news reports that new White House pandemic advisor Scott Atlas, who is a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, had advocated for the Trump administration to lift all social and business restrictions aimed at stopping infections from spreading.

Once enough individuals have been infected and become immune, others are less likely to be infected, creating what health officials call "herd immunity." "I would not be here if the White House believed that herd immunity was an option for America," Birx said. Birx was in Michigan to meet with the state's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and community health officials. - End.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/white-house-s-birx-denies-herd-immunity-policy-under-consideration/ar-BB18DRsF?ocid=msedgdhp

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- White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx.

[RKP5637]

1. AKA Culling the Herd! n/t

[BamaRefugee]

2. When they deny something, they're gonna try something.

[RKP5637]

3. I have no longer have confidence in her or what she says, because I now think of her as

more of a sycophant to Trump.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. They don't have to consider it, they've already implemented it - that's what reopen does

The press let's these criminals get away with murder by vivisecting time periods and present and past tenses.

[IronLionZion]

5. They won't admit it

but they are totally doing it. They feel it's too late to contain it but they want people back to work by election time. They don't care how many millions have to get sick or die.

[Mustellus]

6. common cold and flu... heard immunity?

How does that work, exactly? Had your common cold vaccine? Even the flu vaccine may not work, if they guess wrong on which strains will show up on a given year.

Cold and flu viruses are related to Covid 19. The horror scenario is that the Covid virus mutates so fast that a vaccine is not possible. Then social isolation and contact tracing would be our only way to break the pandemic.

[TomCADem]

7. Internal tensions and a resignation to virus' spread govern President Trump's pandemic response

Maybe they will rebrand herd immunity into something more palatable like "Freedomology."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/politics/white-house-coronavirus-response-atlas-fauci/index.html

But while Atlas has no expertise in epidemiology or infectious disease, his presence -- and the M.D. behind his name -- is an attempt to lend more credibility to ideas that are overwhelmingly opposed by the public health community.
Atlas and other administration officials have placed an especially heavy emphasis on testing in nursing homes while rejecting the need for widespread testing in the broader community, which epidemiologists say is a mistake. Vulnerable populations don't just live in nursing homes and spread of the virus elsewhere can ultimately lead to elderly people and other vulnerable populations getting infected.

Atlas has also bought into the unsubstantiated belief that children are not infected and cannot spread the virus as much as adults, this official said.

But the White House seems determined to put Atlas on level footing with the administration's other medical experts. That was on display Monday as Atlas joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for a news conference, a move that mirrored Birx's public-facing role, traveling across the country and joining state and local officials.

"We have to recognize the harms of removing someone from society, of a so-called prolonged lockdown. They are extraordinary, and the role of public policy is not just to eliminate Covid-19 infection at all cost," Atlas said. "That is not the correct policy. It never really was the policy. The policy is really to consider what the impact of the lockdown, what the actions of the policy, are."

[appalachiablue]

8. Good info. thanks for posting. A radiologist & Fox TV doctor

is absolutely wrong about limitations only in nursing homes, children don't get or spread Covid, and more.

[TomCADem]

11. Even Fox's 'Hard News' Shows Don't Want to Book Trump's Favorite New COVID Adviser

The only thing he brings to the table is an "M.D." in front of his name. That is why Fox is reluctant to book him now as a representative of the Trump administration, because he is not offering medical expertise. Rather, he is just pushing an ideological point of view, and things will get awkward if someone starts asking him science based questions, because he is not an immunologist.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-foxs-hard-news-shows-dont-want-to-book-trumps-favorite-new-covid-adviser-scott-atlas

According to three people familiar with the situation, Fox News producers have been instructed in recent weeks to take extra care when inviting Atlas onto the network to discuss the pandemic, which is rapidly approaching a U.S. body count of 200,000. Some Fox staffers involved in the network’s more straightlaced daytime news programs have been increasingly reluctant to book him altogether.

Among the “hard-news” division shows at Fox, Atlas is viewed with skepticism by senior staff at many of the programs, as they view him as lacking credibility during the coronavirus crisis, and as someone who isn’t even a medical expert in the relevant field.

“Atlas has a background in radiology, not infectious diseases,” one of the sources said. “It makes no sense to have him on to discuss a contagious respiratory virus that continues to spread through parts of this country like wildfire.”

A Daily Beast analysis of all of his Fox News hits shows that as the summer progressed and as his stock quickly rose in Trump’s inner sanctum, Atlas’ appearances on Fox’s news programming took a dramatic plunge.

[appalachiablue]

13. Glad to know it, this would be a good separate post too.

[Thekaspervote]

10. Given the chance, dotard will come up with some new fanatical name for herd immunity

[TomCADem]

12. I Bet Something Racist Like "Aryan Immunity" to Sell it To His Supporters

If that is too much, perhaps something more coded like "Suburban Resistance."

[Thekaspervote]

9. She's just like dotard! How do you know when she's lying? When she's talking!!

[Talitha]

14. What a waste of oxygen... she can kiss my heinie.

[progressive nobody]

15. She is such an ass-kisser.

[hatrack]

16. There's a bus with your name on it, Scarfamucci . . .

It's just taking soooooo loooong to get here.