Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Letter, Scores Of Scientists Strongly Denounce Herd Immunity
NBC News: Covid-19 Herd Immunity, Backed By White House, Is A 'Dangerous Fallacy,' Scientists Warn
Dozens of scientists from around the world warned against a "herd immunity" approach to curbing the spread of Covid-19 in a letter published Wednesday in the medical journal The Lancet. Herd immunity, which occurs when enough people become immune to a contagious disease to make further spread unlikely, is a "dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence," the scientists wrote. The letter, signed by 80 researchers from the fields of public health, epidemiology, virology, infectious diseases and others, said relying on immunity among people who have recovered from Covid-19 is a flawed strategy. (Edwards, 10/14)
USA Today: Herd Immunity: Scientists Say Trump-Endorsed COVID Strategy Is Deadly
The idea that the public can infect its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is "a dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence," 80 researchers said Wednesday in a letter published in the Lancet. They strongly denounced the idea, advocated by the White House, of achieving "herd immunity" against the virus that causes the disease by letting healthy people with a low risk of serious illness get infected. (Weise, 10/14)
CNN: Herd Immunity Is Not The Way Out Of The Coronavirus Pandemic, Experts Say
A vaccine is still the best way to bring an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, health experts say, adding that pursuing herd immunity would be dangerous. The idea of letting the virus run unchecked through communities "misses the basic point that we're all connected," former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Thomas Frieden told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Frieden was responding to recent efforts to promote herd immunity as an answer to Covid-19. The idea is being pushed by those eager to stop the economic damage the pandemic has caused. (Holcombe, 10/15)
Read the letter in The Lancet: Scientific consensus on the COVID-19 pandemic: we need to act now
