From Hackwhackers:
Here’s what a real expert — Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy — has to say about Atlas’ “herd immunity” strategy, which assumes that only 20-25% of the population needs to be infected in order for the rest of the population to be protected:
“First of all, that 20% number is the most amazing combination of pixie dust and pseudoscience I’ve ever seen… It is 50%–70% at minimum. And remember when we talk about getting to 50%–70% protection, we’re talking you can get there with disease — but if that happens, there will be lots of deaths, a lot of serious illnesses — or we can try to get there with vaccination, and postponing the number of people who get sick until we have the vaccines available… 50%–70% just slows down transmission, it doesn’t stop it. So this virus is going to keep looking for wood to burn for as long as it can … so, our goal is to get as many people protected with vaccines.”
Boiled down, “herd immunity” is an almost perfect example of Republican/ neo- fascist social Darwinism — culling the weak, the elderly, the people of color from the population, in order to get on with the business of lining the pockets of the 1 percent. With his daily superspreader events, COVID Donnie seems intent on proving he can infect as many of his cultists as he can to jump start this bogus, dangerous “pseudoscience.” He’s made it clear he’s given up on a pandemic response:
He argued Monday that the American people were no longer interested in taking precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“They’re getting tired of the pandemic — aren’t they?” Trump said at a rally in Arizona. “You turn on CNN. That’s all they cover. Covid, covid, pandemic. Covid, covid, covid. . . . They’re trying to talk people out of voting. People aren’t buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards.”