Trump health official meets with doctors pushing herd immunity

[TomCADem]

Source: The Hill

A top Trump health official met Monday with a group of doctors who are proponents of the controversial “herd immunity” approach to COVID-19, even as other experts warn of its deadly and dangerous consequences.

Martin Kulldorff, a professor at Harvard; Sunetra Gupta, a professor at Oxford; and Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford, all of whom are epidemiologists studying infectious diseases, were invited to the meeting by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Scott Atlas, an adviser to Trump on whom other experts have cast doubt for his statements about COVID-19, including his endorsement of herd immunity.

In the meeting, the three doctors told Azar that allowing the virus to spread uncontrolled among young, healthy people while protecting older adults and those at higher risk for serious illness would build up enough population immunity to stop it from spreading widely while avoiding lockdowns and other mitigation measures that have had a damaging impact on the economy.

"We had a very good discussion. He asked many questions, and we put forth our case to protect the people who are vulnerable, and the idea of trying to do lockdowns to eliminate this disease is not realistic," Kulldorff said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/519727-trump-health-official-meets-with-doctors-pushing-herd-immunity

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I guess Trump is switching gears from a miracle virus now that he got COVID and survived. Now, he wants to sell the idea that everyone should get it, rather than wait for a vaccine.

[soothsayer]

1. Jeezus. This has been their unspoken approach for some time

Well... maybe they just took no action at all, and this is just a justification

[TomCADem]

19. Not Really. Originally, It Was Just to Ignore or Blame the Blue States

Remember that originally, the Trump administration dragged its feet, because they thought they could just scapegoat Democratic Governors like Cuomo, Inslee and Newsome where the pandemic first hit. But, now that the pandemic is raging most intently in red or purple States, the Trump campaign is now trying to frame uncontrolled spread as a win, particularly since he has COVID.

[BlueWavePsych]

2. Sickly Don is peddling a death cult!

[Traildogbob]

9. Remember the "Roach Hotel"

A little house that would draw in mindless roaches and kill them. Can we build a big one with Covid, or is the White House filling that need. Allow easy access and tours to see dear leader give thumbs up for his maggots like the close outside Walter Read. For an additional fee they can view Ivanka and Melania kidney bumps.

[gab13by13]

3. Trump wants to run on the economy,

He made the calculation that even if 400k people die by the end of the year the stock market will do better than if there were safety measures in place.

Every worker must be a meat packaging worker.

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. I guess they have settled on their "final,solution" nt

[pat_k]

23. The Color of Coronavirus

https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race

[IcyPeas]

24. that site really breaks it down- this is why Trump and his followers feel safer:

[pat_k]

30. Yes.

It undoubtedly thrills the white terrorists that Black Americans are dying at almost three times the rate of whites and that Indigenous Americans are dying at almost two times the rate of whites. (Undoubtedly they believe the genocide of the latter should have been 100%.)

[BusyBeingBest]

5. It's shocking how many lives they're willing to gamble with

to help the stock market and industries and the wealthy earn more $$$. Especially considering that young people can and do get quite ill and even die, and many develop long-term health problems post-illness.

[Bayard]

6. trump is not out of the woods yet himself

So called, herd immunity, sounds like a lazy way to get around testing and wearing masks.

Has it worked in any other country?

[beachbumbob]

7. will need 6 million dead americans or more to get to any level of herd immunity so they

are giving up on a vaccine now?

[highplainsdem]

8. Assholes. There's no way to let it spread uncontrollably among young healthy people without also

putting everyone else at risk -- along with all the young people since we still don't know how widespread and long-lasting harmful effects of covid on young people will be.

[BusyBeingBest]

15. The plan is just to keep isolating old and immunocompromised people indefinitely.

They takes their chances if they want to hug their grandkids again.

[highplainsdem]

17. One of the big risk factors with covid is obesity. That doesn't apply only to the elderly and

immunocompromised. That's more than a third of Americans, with some of the highest rates in red states.

[BusyBeingBest]

18. I'm lumping in people with obesity, high blood pressure, asthma, pre-exisiting conditions in general

with truly immunocompromised people (cancer patients, those on steroids, etc.) because they're all in danger to various degrees--really, if you're over 50 (as I am) you've probably got something going on to heighten your risk. It's a staggering number of people.

[highplainsdem]

20. That would be probably well over half the population in many states -- and way over half of the

people who have enough money to get the economy going again the way it was pre-pandemic.

College kids hanging out at bars and throwing keggers are NOT going to keep the economy going.

[BusyBeingBest]

21. You said it. There's no way the economy is going to improve when we have many millions of

people yet to be infected to achieve "herd immunity". Loss of work, loss of paychecks, medical bills, lost productivity, weeks of quarantine, overtaxed hospitals and medical facilities leading to a greater number of non-Covid health problems--why do they think it's going to be magically better as time goes on, UNLESS we have a reliable vaccine program?

[dawg day]

10. Protect the elderly?

They of course never explain how they're going to do that, Or how they Are going to pay for it. Are they planning on putting elderly people in quarantine hotels while everyone else roams around giving each other Covid 19?

[Traildogbob]

13. Easy

Let old people die, raid the Social Security trust fund then end it and Medicare. Kushner has a personal stockpile of medical equipment to save old rich people. MAGA. Being Best. Middle to old age people pay majority of taxes. Who will finance politicians salaries and retirement. Reagan decided to tax SS to make up his budget fuckery to assist loss of revenue from rich.

[Javaman]

11. read somewhere that if we are to use the stupid ass herd immunity...

to get there we will rack up 2.5 million deaths.

[snowybirdie]

12. We Older people

Will protect ourselves and not listen to the bull shit coming from this Administration. And do they figure out how we'd do seeing our children and grandchildren die? VOTE!!!!!

[Thekaspervote]

14. Yup! Millions dead, but hey der leader has spoken, don't let covid run your life

No empathy or understanding, just I had it, so what’s the big deal.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

28. It doesn't matter if even a million people die, so long as Fat Donnie is reelected

and gets his SCOTUS pick.

[duforsure]

16. So, trump could care less about seniors dying

And causing permanent health issues for 2/3 of the rest of us, and really destroying the economy from costs from it. How ignorant is suggesting this/

[Native]

22. Ask Sweden how well it worked for them! God forbid we wait 2-3 months for a vaccine, much better to

spend God knows how long for it to run rampant until 60-70% of the population is immune. And who is to say this won't need to be repeated indefinitely since 1) the virus mutates and 2) immunity is fleeting? WTF?

[colorado_ufo]

25. Think about it.

Putin must be masturbating about this daily: 211,000 Americans dead and millions more incapacitated. The mighty American economy decimated. Civil unrest across the country. Americans in long lines at food banks. Unemployment. Schools and colleges disrupted. Evictions. Government gridlock and key people virus-infected, as if hit with biological warfare. Fanaticism.

A president pushing for full economic opening and "herd immunity," possibly escalating American deaths into the millions.

And Putin never lost a single Russian soldier to accomplish it.

[bucolic_frolic]

26. It's a political strategy, more COVID, maskless debates, no stimulus, then blame Democrats

he's changing up the strategy with 4 weeks to go. Democrats need to adjust and point out the flaws in Trump's plan, and attack, attack, attack!

[Thrax]

27. Call it what it really is:

Herd thinning.
Wonder how all those 70+ year old GOP senators and house members feel about this idea?

[Thrax]

29. Hey kids!

You too can enjoy COPD at the ripe old age of 30.
MAGA

[truthisfreedom]

31. They spelled mentality wrong.