The World Health Organization and most major nations' public health leaders have said that a combination of individual prevention, widespread testing and contact tracing, and harsher lockdown-like measures when and where community spread is rampant make for a better approach to combating COVID-19 than letting the virus run rampant in an attempt to build up mass immunity.Īmong the issues commonly cited as negatives of a herd immunity strategy are that it is not yet clear if everyone who contracts COVID-19 develops immunity, how long that immunity lasts or if patients can be reinfected. It has been estimated that achieving herd immunity in the United States would mean two million deaths from COVID-19. abandoned that approach in March, while Sweden experienced a high death rate compared to its neighbours while only a small portion of the country's population was conferred immunity. This is essentially the approach that some countries – the United Kingdom and Sweden among them – used as an alternative to lockdowns and similar measures in the early days of the pandemic. The declaration posits that the latter can be achieved by staffing nursing homes with only those who have developed immunity to the novel coronavirus and keeping retirees at home with essential goods being delivered to them, among other measures.įor the rest of the population, it proposes universal adoption of "simple hygiene measures, such as hand-washing and staying home when sick," and a resumption of virtually all pre-pandemic activities, from normal office work to reopened restaurants to sporting and cultural events, in a bid to expose enough people to the virus to build up herd immunity. Instead of long-lasting lockdowns, the declaration argues, governments should shift their focus to achieving herd immunity, which it terms "focused protection" – allowing those at the least risk of serious complications from COVID-19 to be exposed to the virus, while safeguarding those in more vulnerable groups. Newsletter sign-up: Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox."Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed," it reads. It argues that the lockdown-heavy approach is "producing devastating effects" on public health, including "lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health." The declaration lays out the case for global adoption of a "herd immunity"-style approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three dozen other scientists, doctors and academics are listed as co-signatories, with the most prominent being Michael Levitt, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2013. The Great Barrington Declaration was written and signed by three epidemiologists in Great Barrington, Mass. A plea for an immediate return to open restaurants, mass gatherings and working from the office has received the support of nearly 125,000 petition signatories and opposition from critics who denounce it as dangerous and likely deadly.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |