Daily US Times: Health experts say a vaccine is still the best way to bring an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that pursuing herd immunity would be dangerous.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said CNN: ”The idea of letting the virus run unchecked through communities “misses the basic point that we’re all connected.”
The former director was responding to recent efforts to promote herd immunity as an answer to Covid-19. The idea is being advocated by those eager to stop the economic damage the pandemic has caused.
The coronavirus has infected more than 7.9 million people and 216,872 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
By the end of the year, a vaccine could be available to some groups. But some politicians hoping to reverse the economic havoc from the current coronavirus pandemic have embraced the idea of letting the virus spread until enough people have been infected and developed immunity that there is no where for it to spread next.
In a call with reporters Monday, White House senior administration officials discussed a controversial declaration written by scientists that advocates for such an approach.
But 80 scientists from around the world wrote in an open letter that the idea is “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence” that risks “significant morbidity and mortality across the whole population.”
Frieden said: “Any infection anywhere is potentially a threat somewhere else because even if you feel fine and get over it with no problems, no long-term consequences, you might spread it to someone who dies from it. And that’s what we’re seeing all over the country.”
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