Based on recent events and statements from the trump administration, it is quite clear that they are going full steam ahead with peddling COVID-19 herd immunity via infections. In spite of all the talk about vaccines and treatments, the underlying narrative has always been one of achieving herd immunity. Right-wing media is full of memes about low fatality rates and how Democrats wants to shut the economy down to make trump look bad, etc.
Whether trump will recover from his COVID-19 infection (thanks to the best medical care U.S. tax-dollars can buy) or whether he will collapse in the coming days, time will tell, but the COVID-19 strategy has not changed — since they have no other strategy.
This morning trump tweeted —
As usual, it is full of lies and deceptions, but the subliminal message is that COVID-19 is less dangerous than the flu, folks should go to work (to prop up the stock market), send their children to schools and everything will be OK.
Here is a little truth about the flu — it has averaged around 33,769 deaths per year over the past decade, it has not reached 100,000 in any year since 2009.
Yesterday, trump tweeted “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”.
Again, the message was clear — go to work, go to restaurants and bars; if you get sick, we will take care of you (never mind that the average person can barely get a test, let alone a helicopter ride to a lavish suite at Walter Reed) and you will feel 20 years younger as a bonus.
The Herd Immunity Gang
Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist turned COVID-19 herd-immunity-advocate, was appointed to replace the inconvenient Dr. Fauci. HHS Sec. Azar has also been on board the herd immunity train. There is a group from Stanford and Harvard that has been peddling herd immunity for many months now. They are are collaborating to influence states and the trump base into accelerating towards herd immunity — by letting most people get infected naturally while somehow “protecting” the elderly. To support that message, republicans have been peddling this message on all channels — that COVID-19 affects “virtually nobody”; even if one gets infected, it is no worse than the flu; children are immune; most people are already immune, etc.
Yesterday, Azar met with a group of “herd-mentalists” trying to line up their ducks for the messaging in the next few weeks —
From thehill.com/… -
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.
Here is a strong endorsement of the strategy by Sec. Azar after the meeting -
Last Friday, Dr. Atlas, was on Fox news, waxing eloquently about herd immunity — www.foxnews.com/...
It is no surprise that people get the infection, even with precautions. I anticipate a complete and full and rapid recovery back to normal after his necessary confinement period. I anticipate he’ll be back on the road and in full swing.
trump is a super vigorous man; he has never seen anyone with more energy and more vigor, at any age, but particularly at his age.
He is a very, very healthy guy. And the overwhelming majority of people, even at his age, do fine with this. He is very healthy, and so I anticipate the same for him.
This is a widespread, highly contagious infection, and this is going to be very mild or asymptomatic for the overwhelming majority of people, especially if you’re a healthy person. And if you can, do your best at the usual mitigation — hand washing, social distancing, the usual masks, if you are in very tight spaces and you cannot socially distance, or are with high-risk family members.
We know the severe harms of locking down with prolonged isolation and prolonged closures of schools and businesses, and nothing has changed about the message—which is, this is a widespread infection, the vast majority of people do well, we need to protect the highest risk people and open schools up and society and get back to functioning
There is this group called the Great Barrington Declaration, whose website has a declaration promoting herd immunity and has a bunch of “scientists and health practitioners” who have signed it. Here are parts of the declaration -
The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.
Adopting measures to protect the vulnerable should be the central aim of public health responses to COVID-19. By way of example, nursing homes should use staff with acquired immunity and perform frequent PCR testing of other staff and all visitors. Staff rotation should be minimized. Retired people living at home should have groceries and other essentials delivered to their home. When possible, they should meet family members outside rather than inside.
Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone to reduce the herd immunity threshold. Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.
Curiously, they do not mention masks, since masks are anathema to this movement.
What About Vaccines
trump has been braying about vaccines and how he is single-handedly responsible for developing them (they were developed long before the White House could spell COVID). They are pressuring vaccine developers and the FDA to approve a vaccine by the end of October. The logic of why a vaccine is needed if “immunity through natural infection” is the preferred approach is lost on the proponents. trump just wants bragging rights to the vaccine, its efficacy and safety is of little concern to him.
The Myriad Problems with Herd Immunity
Much has been written about why herd immunity via infections is an asinine and dangerous strategy. I will not delve into the details in this diary. It’s not just about the deaths and it’s not just about the elderly. There is tons of info. on the effects of the virus on various organs of the body and for various age groups and vulnerabilities. Here is an insightful thread written in response to the Azar meeting with the the 3 “merchants of death” -
Epilogue
Nothing has changed with the trump and GOP propaganda machine. This is all they have got and they are going full steam ahead with it. Somehow, they think this is a winning idea. More likely, they simply want their base to keep sacrificing their loved ones for the sake of the stock market. They also want their supporters to show up at the polling booth on November 3 and not use mail-in ballots.
No, we cannot ignore this by saying this affects trump’s right-wing base only. It affects all of us. Every maskless jerk at the grocery store (or the White House) is a threat to all of us. Forcing kids and teachers to school and workers to factories affects the lives and livelihoods of many beyond trump supporters.
Let’s keep fighting back with every thing we have got. Let’s keep neutralizing their propaganda while making sure everyone who can vote does so by November 3. The nation needs an administration that relies on facts, science and competence. The future of humanity depends on it.