Each day, the world comes up with new strategies to combat the deadly pandemic. In recent news, President Donald Trump’s adviser is urging the United States to adopt a concept of “coronavirus herd immunity.” The key takeaways of this concept suggest that in order for people to get on with their lives, governments should let coronavirus affect healthy people. The phenomenon of herd immunity only seeks to protect the elderly and vulnerable. This theory of coronavirus herd immunity supports the narrative that kids do not spread the virus.
Trump’s Pandemic Adviser’s approach:
The torchbearer of this approach is Scott Atlas, a neuro-radiologist who joined the White House earlier this month and serves as the Trump Adviser on the pandemic. This phenomenon was earlier practiced in Sweden as a response strategy. This approach is executed by lifting restrictions and suspending SOPs. When a major chunk of the population is diagnosed with the virus, people will eventually form immunity against the virus.
According to news reports, Trump has already enacted policies aimed at relaxing restrictions and policies. The most important such policy states that the number of people to be tested for coronavirus will be limited. Therefore, not anyone who feels the symptoms of the virus will be able to get tested. The approach taken by Sweden was severely criticized for being dangerous. No evidence exists to support the theory that coronavirus herd immunity would be successfully achieved. Such a policy might wipe out the entire population.
However, this theory of coronavirus herd immunity has gained considerable enthusiasm from conservatives. Conservatives argue that social distancing and restrictions will have disastrous consequences for the economy. Moreover, they are of the opinion that such restrictions infringe upon people’s liberties. An op-ed was written by Scott Gottlieb in the Wall Street Journal, Scott happens to be Trump’s former Food and Drug Administration commissioner. He wrote, “COVID spreads too easily to think it can be confined to the young, it is neither possible nor desirable to lock away the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.”
Lots of jokes going around about Trump’s new coronavirus adviser who said that ‘kids don't spread the virus’. What concerns me is that this is basically what our government – backed up by the Chief Medical Officer and other senior staff – is telling us ahead of school’s opening!
— Liam Young (@liamyoung) August 31, 2020
“Kids don’t spread the virus” theory debunked
Moreover, health experts and analysts have reiterated that the fact that kids do spread the virus. The narrative that kids are not vulnerable is a false one. This narrative is being emphasized without any scientific backing. Moreover, as soon as schools opened in the United States, the number of children being diagnosed with coronavirus is multiplying each day. Scott told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview that “coronavirus is very dangerous for high risk-individuals, mainly the elderly and people with underlying health conditions, but “not very dangerous” for low-risk people.” This narrative completely excludes kids who are found to be major carriers of the virus.
Plans to go ahead with this approach are currently under discussions in the White House, opinions from experts inside and outside the governments are being deliberated upon. The majority of the community is in consensus that this strategy would have disastrous impacts on the community. The entire population could be wiped out.
