Home / General / “We want them infected”

“We want them infected”

/
/
/
2954 Views

tHe PaRtY OF LiFe:

A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a “herd immunity” approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by a House watchdog and shared with POLITICO.

“There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD,” then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote on July 4 to his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo, and six other senior officials.

“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…” Alexander added.

“[I]t may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected” in order to get “natural immunity…natural exposure,” Alexander wrote on July 24 to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Caputo and eight other senior officials. Caputo subsequently asked Alexander to research the idea, according to emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee’s select subcommittee on coronavirus.

Alexander also argued that colleges should stay open to allow Covid-19 infections to spread, lamenting in a July 27 email to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield that “we essentially took off the battlefield the most potent weapon we had…younger healthy people, children, teens, young people who we needed to fastly [sic] infect themselves, spread it around, develop immunity, and help stop the spread.”

It seems worth noting here that 1)lower relative risk is very different than no risk, 2)herd immunity was Not Happening without a vaccine, and 3)the fact that safe vaccines have been developed with historic speed makes this bullshit even more infuriating than it would be otherwise. [As Denverite observes, the additional extremely dumb thing here is that children live with and interact with adults; you cannot contain a highly contagious virus only to low-risk population.]

In related news, here’s an example of the actual impact of the “just take the punch” strategy that is Republican orthodoxy:

The White House security director was offered support Tuesday by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, after a severe bout with Covid-19 left him hospitalized for three months. The security director — whose office oversees approving credentialing for access to the White House, among other security measures — was recently released from the hospital after battling the virus, according to a friend with knowledge of his health, who added that the employee’s lower leg and foot were amputated as a result of his illness.

[…]

“He is recovering, from what I understand. We are very pleased to see that, but he and his family will be in our prayers,” said McEnany, who added she was “not sure” if President Donald Trump had spoken to the official, who has not spoken publicly, didn’t return calls for comment and whose family has asked for privacy.

35 days is 35 too many.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar
Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views :